An international workshop to discuss policy on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) will be co-hosted by the Global Strategy Lab (GSL) at the University of Oxford on Sept. 12 and 13.
The GSL is a bi-campus interdisciplinary research program that brings cutting-edge science and scholarship to bear on how global institutions, instruments and initiatives are designed to better address the most pressing global challenges. It is based at York University and the University of Ottawa with York University Professor Steven Hoffman as director.
The two-day event, hosted along with the Oxford Martin School’s Programme on Collective Responsibility for Infectious Disease, aims to bring together a group of leading decision makers to discuss the feasibility and value of an international treaty on AMR. It will be chaired by Professor Dame Sally Davies, the U.K.’s chief medical officer.
“AMR is one of the greatest public health emergencies of our time,” said Davies. “Many governments are becoming increasingly concerned about AMR and have concluded that urgent measures are needed. But AMR is not a problem that can be fully mitigated at the national level: tackling this threat requires global and multisectoral action.”
The workshop will include presentations and discussions on the scope of the problem, the role that international law can play and is already playing, and a discussion on next steps.
This workshop is tied to funding that the GSL has received from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada and Wellcome Trust. It is the second of two international workshops on AMR that the GSL has co-hosted with Oxford, and it follows the first workshop that was held in May.
Attending on behalf of York University are: Hoffman, Professor Mathieu Poirier and Managing Research Fellow Susan Rogers Van Katwyk.