Refugees, migrants, and displaced populations: the United Nations New York Declaration and the WHO International Health Regulations

The World Health Assembly approved the International Health Regulations (IHR) committing countries to strengthen their capacity to address public health emergencies of international concern. A mechanism to assess a country's capacity, the Joint External Evaluation (JEE), is a means to assist countries to assess their health system preparedness. The assessment teams include public health and veterinary experts, but include those with specialized knowledge about refugee, immigrant, and internally displaced persons situations. Such experts have not been regularly included in the JEE assessment teams previously. Particularly where there are significant existing or prospective populations of this cohort, the author asserts they need to be.