TORONTO, May 28, 2025 鈥撀�Ahead of World No Tobacco Day on May 31, 91亚色 researchers with Global Strategy Lab (GSL) have published a paper that finds a lack of gender analysis in tobacco control research. The researchers say this means that we could be missing out on important strategies accounting for gendered behaviours that could help smokers quit. , published today in聽BMJ Tobacco Control,聽is the first in a series of papers coming out of 91亚色 and GSL on gender and smoking.聽

鈥淚n the tobacco control research community, we're not looking at gender, and even though we all know that gender is a hugely important determinant of tobacco use and how effective tobacco control policies are,鈥� says聽,聽Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health, 91亚色 Research Chair in Global Health Equity and Director of Global Strategy Lab. 鈥淭his lack of a gender lens limits our understanding of the effectiveness of tobacco control policy interventions and fails to address gendered smoking behaviours.鈥澛�

The researchers, including Poirier, GSL Investigator and 91亚色 researcher   and GSL research assistant and 91亚色 researcher , examined 43 peer-reviewed studies on tobacco control and found that while some studies looked at basic comparisons between men and women, only five evaluated the gender-specific impacts of tobacco control policies. 

鈥淭he incorporation of gender in the peer-reviewed research is lackluster,鈥� says Nanyangwe-Moyo. 鈥淲e hope our contributions will show the importance of looking at the differences in smoking behaviours of men and women around the world in creating effective policy and smoking cessation programs.鈥澛�

While this study is the first to examine the intersection of tobacco-control and gender-based policy, it builds on existing research from the Global Strategy Lab on smoking and global policy. 

In Canada, while smoking rates are on the decline, 14.8 per cent of men and 10.2 per cent of women smoke. Globally, more than a fifth of the world鈥檚 population uses tobacco, with the World Health Organization reporting 36.7 per cent of men and 7.8 of women using tobacco products in 2020. 

Poirier says they chose to focus on cigarette smoking in their research rather than vaping as it is the most common form of tobacco use and because of its level of harm.

鈥淭here are harms associated with vaping itself, but when we look at the number one preventable cause of premature mortality and morbidity, it's combustible tobacco use,鈥� he says. 

The researchers will continue to look at gender and smoking and will be publishing several upcoming research papers on the topic. In the first, the researchers look at how much men and women smokers smoke a day across the world and examine the potential reasons behind these differences in various parts of the world.  Another will look at the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, an international agreement on smoking, and whether it has been equally effective for men and women across the world. 

鈥淭his is the start for us in opening up a new set of research on this previously mostly ignored area,鈥� says Poirier. 

GSL is hosting a discussion of how to strengthen tobacco controls globally on Thursday May 29 at 10 a.m. EDT. Details and registration information . 

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91亚色 is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change, and prepare our students for success. 91亚色's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91亚色鈥檚 campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future. 

Media Contact: 

Emina Gamulin, 91亚色 Media Relations, 437-217-6362, egamulin@yorku.ca

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Researchers share goals of using a One Health-approach, to save 10 million lives and aim for 100 per cent sustainable access to effective antimicrobials in new policy paper

TORONTO, September 18, 2024 鈥� Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) contributes to millions of deaths annually, a problem that only becomes more pressing and will be a focus of a United Nations high-level meeting in New 91亚色 later this month. Ahead of this key meeting, 91亚色 researchers with the (GSL) and a group of international collaborators that emphasize an all-in approach where antibiotics and other antimicrobials are available to everyone, especially those who need them the most, and millions of lives are saved.

GSL鈥檚 co-director and Faculty of Health Assistant Professor , who was a key player in drafting the proposal, says that the goals, while ambitious, are also wholly achievable.

鈥淪imilar to climate change, AMR poses a threat to human and animal health, food security and economic wellbeing globally, so tackling the problem successfully requires a One Health approach that takes all of these factors into account,鈥� says Poirier. 鈥淟ow- and middle- income countries face even greater challenges with less access to life-saving antimicrobials, fewer resources and a higher burden of AMR, and children under 5 are particularly affected.鈥�

Poirier and other GSL colleagues had also convened a meeting earlier this year in Italy with other global health and policy experts, and the resulting discussion led to the creation of the 1-10-100 goals, outlined in a in the journal Globalization and Health.

The goals look at three key areas:

• One health: The interconnections between people, animals, agrifood systems, and environment means a collaborative approach involving multiple sectors is fundamental
• 10 million lives saved: The researchers say 10 million lives could be saved by 2040 through efforts to prevent and properly treat infections while preserving antimicrobial effectiveness. This would include enhanced vaccination programs, improved water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure and improvements to infection prevention and control
• 100 per cent sustainable access: Antimicrobials must be available and affordable for all, used only when needed, and new antimicrobials must be developed for future use

Since that meeting, other goals and targets have been presented, including a 10 per cent reduction in mortality from AMR, a one-fifth reduction in inappropriate human antibiotic use, and reducing unnecessary animal antibiotic use by 30 per cent.

While AMR is the result of a natural process where bacteria, viruses and other microbes evolve to develop resistance to the drugs used to combat illness, the rapid proliferation of drug-resistant infections is a huge threat globally.

Poirier will be in New 91亚色 at the time of the UN high-level meeting on AMR Sept. 26, and says that regardless of the meeting鈥檚 outcome, it鈥檚 crucial that UN member states do not take a merely technical approach to setting targets.

鈥淭his is a historic opportunity for member states to introduce unifying goals that rally public and political support to accelerate policy action to mitigate AMR,鈥� says Poirier, also 91亚色 Research Chair in Global Health Equity. 鈥淭he stakes are huge; there鈥檚 literally millions of lives at stake. While AMR does affect some countries disproportionately, none of us are immune.鈥�  In a , Poirier further elaborates on the topic.

About 91亚色

91亚色 is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change, and prepare our students for success. 91亚色鈥檚 fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario鈥檚 Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91亚色鈥檚 campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contact: Gloria Suhasini, 91亚色 Media Relations and External Communications, 647-463-4354, suhasini@yorku.ca

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The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) more than $3.5 million dollars combined, money that will go towards research that aims to help parents and neonatal infants, addresses equity and political barriers to global public health concerns and helps further our understanding of the role of an important hormone in heart health. 

Helping preterm babies and parents have better outcomes

Faculty of Health Professor , who heads up the Ouch Lab, and is also the 91亚色 Research Chair in Pain and Mental Health, received nearly $1.4 million for work that will look at very preterm infants and how medical interventions and maternal stressors may impact the ability of skin-to-skin contact to help regulate pain in the infant. The project, , will be carried out at the neonatal intensive care unit at Mount Sinai Hospital. 

"Preterm infants are one of the most vulnerable populations on this planet and are exposed to numerous painful procedures everyday of their young lives. Their parental context is a critical factor to better understand and improve their quality of life. Our lab is so grateful to CIHR for their funding to better understand how maternal factors impact their child's pain responses during skin-to-skin care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit,鈥� says Pillai Riddell.聽

Making international health agreements more equitable

Professor was awarded more than $1.13 million that will go towards work being done by himself and other investigators at the 91亚色-based Global Strategy Lab, including Faculty of Health Assistant Professor , for . 

鈥淭he Global Strategy Lab is pleased to have been awarded CIHR funding to continue our research on designing more impactful and equitable international agreements for health.

"Through a world-leading global legal epidemiology approach, we are advancing global health law, tobacco control, and planetary health in support of 91亚色鈥檚 contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals,鈥� says Poirier, also co-director of the Global Strategy Lab and 91亚色 Research Chair in Global Health Equity.聽

Understanding heart failure better, especially for those with diabetes

Faculty of Science Professor Gary Sweeney will be looking at a hormone that is often compromised in people with diabetes and obesity and is involved in the body cleaning up bad cells in the heart. has received close to a million dollars in funding from CIHR.

About 91亚色

91亚色 is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change, and prepare our students for success. 91亚色鈥檚 fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario鈥檚 Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91亚色鈥檚 campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contacts: Emina Gamulin, 91亚色 Media Relations and External Communications, 437-217-6362, egamulin@yorku.ca

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New paper from Global Strategy Lab calls for antimicrobial resistance to be reframed as a sustainability issue

TORONTO, Jan 9, 2024 鈥� From a wartime spread of antimicrobial resistant disease in Ukraine, to superbugs in China causing 鈥渨hite lung鈥� pneumonia in children, 2023 brought no shortage of new evidence that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) continues to be a pressing problem globally, and this pattern shows no sign of abating in 2024 unless a radical shift occurs. 

To truly tackle the issue of AMR, 91亚色 researchers with the Global Strategy Lab (GSL) argue it needs to be understood as a socio-ecological challenge that accepts AMR as a phenomenon stemming from natural evolutionary processes. In other words, the war on bugs can鈥檛 be won; what鈥檚 needed is a major change in how people live with it. 

鈥淔or the past hundred years, we鈥檝e tried to address AMR like a medical problem. But we haven't really made much progress in actually mitigating the deeper drivers of the issue,鈥� says, a recent 91亚色 PhD political science graduate and lead author of in the prestigious Perspectives on Politics journal. 鈥淲e argue that there's a lot of potential to make progress by instead looking at it as a problem with our relationship with the microbial world and sustainability.鈥� 

AMR stems from both the natural tendency of bacteria, viruses and fungi to evolve as well as the acceleration of that process through human interventions such as an over-reliance or misuse of antibiotics in medical settings, to the routine use of antimicrobials in the livestock industry. Global data from 2019 showed more than a million deaths a year directly related to AMR, and the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have accelerated this process.

Last year, GSL set up the AMR Policy Accelerator with $8.7 million from Wellcome Trust to deal with this urgent threat. While Weldon acknowledges that medical and technological innovation will be a crucial component in managing the issue, new antimicrobial drugs alone will not be the solution.

鈥淲hat we鈥檙e currently doing is treating the symptoms and not the causes of AMR,鈥� says Weldon, also an investigator with GSL. 鈥淲ithout addressing the underlying social relationships that drive our use, innovation would have to operate at an unsustainable speed as these microbes evolve faster than we can make new drugs.鈥�

Weldon and co-author Steven J. Hoffman, director of GSL and Dahdaleh Distinguished Chair in Global Governance & Legal Epidemiology with 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Health and Osgoode Hall Law School, outline major problems with the current governance approach to AMR. They introduce five principles for designing institutions for a better ecological fit of human-microbial ecosystems to minimize drug resistance: 

1. There鈥檚 no silver bullet. Recognizing that there is no easy fit or one-fits all solution for AMR means problem-solving must always be tailored to specific ecological situations and health challenges of diverse populations.
2. Create institutions that can adapt over time. Future proofing doesn鈥檛 mean creating institutions that are strong enough to withstand change, but ones flexible enough to evolve with the changing nature of AMR and our relationship to it.
3. Diversify practices. As the best way to tackle AMR is still unknown,  diversifying practices can help us discover what works, when, and where. 
4. Create records. As practices are diversified, records need to be kept of what works to enable learning and adjustments in policy. 
5. Involve stakeholders. This involves everyone from the public at large, to government and decision makers. 

鈥淲hat we are proposing is a completely different way of looking at the issue,鈥� says Hoffman. 鈥淲e are hoping this journal article will be a foundational piece that will inspire further AMR research in this direction.鈥�

of Weldon explain the research.

GSL is hosting the live online webinar Is 鈥淐o-existing鈥� with Microbes the Key to Addressing AMR? on Feb. 1 at 9 a.m. featuring Weldon, Hoffman, and Clare Chandler from the London Tropical School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. For details and registration information,. 

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Restricting international travel is an extreme measure 鈥� total closures can work, but must be implemented early, and only when there are no alternatives, says 91亚色 researcher

March 2, 2023, TORONTO 鈥�  A research team from the  (GSL) at 91亚色 looked at border closures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic and concluded that many were ineffective, illegal and even when they did work, were so disruptive that in the future they should only be used when absolutely necessary.  

, among the first to evaluate the effectiveness of border closures initially put in place three years ago to slow the spread of the then novel coronavirus, found that targeted closures did little to curb the crisis, and, if evaluated based on what we know now, would likely be considered illegal under international law. The most extreme shutdowns, on the other hand, were temporarily effective but came at a great cost. Border closures should be used as a means of last resort and decisions around closures would be most effective if co-ordinated globally by the World Health Organization, says the paper鈥檚 lead author Mathieu Poirier.

鈥淧eople just assumed at the time that these measures were effective, but that鈥檚 not necessarily the case,鈥� says Poirier, Faculty of Health social epidemiology professor and 91亚色 Research Chair in Global Health Equity and co-director of GSL. 鈥淥ur study shows, using real-world data, that for most countries, in most situations, border closures are not going to be the best approach.鈥� 

The research was published this week in PLOS Global Public Health. Poirier and his GSL co-authors  鈥�&苍产蝉辫;91亚色 professors Susan Rogers Van Katwyk and Steven Hoffman and data analyst Gigi Lin 鈥�&苍产蝉辫; looked at available information from 166 countries and evaluated whether border closures curbed spread both domestically and internationally. 

Total border closures 鈥�&苍产蝉辫;defined as barring non-essential travel from all other countries and implemented by the vast majority of countries in March 2020 鈥�&苍产蝉辫;did temporarily slow COVID-19 transmission globally. However, the wave of targeted border closures a month earlier aimed at travellers from hotspots did not slow down the global pandemic. On a national level, targeted closures did work in some situations, but the most effective were implemented early and were so extensive that they approached a total closure. Border closures can also divert resources away from other pandemic measures and reduce global co-operation when it is most needed during a pandemic crisis. 

Border closures have a huge effect on people鈥檚 lives and the economy when compared to other measures such as quarantines, restricting public gatherings and test-and-tracing approaches. But if other less disruptive measures are not possible, then applying border closures early is key. Poirier acknowledges that deciding how early is not a straightforward process. 

鈥淚f you're not making those difficult decisions early on, then that decision-making process might already be too late, but if you are the first country to implement a closure, that鈥檚 likely going to be very unpopular.鈥�

This challenge is further complicated by the lack of reliable real-time information available to decision-makers. 

鈥淪ome countries may not be reporting what they know, and many more countries aren't testing or don't have the infrastructure to actually know what's happening on the ground in the first place,鈥� he adds, noting data is not solely an issue in autocratic regimes. 鈥淲ith these fast-moving pandemic threats, it's probably best to assume that we don't know what's happening.鈥� 

Under the International Health Regulations, restrictions should not be more stringent than necessary and methods like border closures should only be implemented if supported by science. 

鈥淟ooking back, most countries鈥� border closures were likely illegal, but that science was not available to decision makers at the time,鈥� Poirier concludes. 鈥淭his research suggests closures may have a role to play in future pandemics but should be implemented with strong caution and in co-operation with other countries.鈥�

About 91亚色

91亚色 is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change, and prepare our students for success. 91亚色鈥檚 fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario鈥檚 Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91亚色鈥檚 campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contacts: Emina Gamulin, 91亚色 Media Relations and External Communications, 437-217-6362, egamulin@yorku.ca

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New policy accelerator aims to bridge science and politics with $8.7 million backing from Wellcome Trust

TORONTO, Nov. 22, 2022 鈥�&苍产蝉辫;While recent health-care attention remains on the 鈥榯riple threat鈥� of COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, we cannot overlook the emerging pandemic of antimicrobial resistance 鈥� an already critical problem with the potential to become so dire that a small cut could lead to death, as without reliable antibiotics, some infections could be untreatable, say researchers from the 91亚色-based Global Strategy Lab (GSL). 

Creating solutions to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) will be made possible with a unique project initiated by 91亚色鈥檚 GSL and an $8.7-million grant from , a global charitable foundation that supports science to solve urgent health challenges.

Antimicrobial drugs are increasingly falling short in their ability to tackle infectious bugs due to overuse, and this has only intensified since COVID-19 began. It has gotten to the point where we might see basic health-care standards compromised within a generation, GSL experts say. The , an ambitious initiative by GSL, will act as a critical antidote to this global threat by intersecting scientific research and evidence-based policy to urge governments to act.

鈥淚t's not one bug and one drug that we're worried about 鈥� it's the whole ecosystem,鈥� says GSL鈥檚, a leading epidemiologist who acts as managing director of the new project. 鈥淧eople around the world, and Canadians in particular, expect when they go to the doctor鈥檚 office that there's going to be a drug that's going to be able to treat their infection. We're increasingly looking at a situation where that won鈥檛 be possible unless we change course.鈥�

The Accelerator is not a typical research project. While some of its output will be academic papers, it will also provide customized research and advisory services to governments and civil-society organizations 鈥� especially in low and middle-income countries 鈥� in response to requests for evidence on AMR policy, implementation, and evaluation.

"The AMR Policy Accelerator will leverage the Global Strategy Lab鈥檚 proven track record of using evidence to advise the world鈥檚 governments. These much needed research-based solutions for policymakers will result in more equitable and effective AMR policies and action plans worldwide,鈥� says GSL director, who is also a professor at 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Health and Osgoode Hall Law School.

The initiative is led by Hoffman and Rogers Van Katwyk, with support from 91亚色 researchers,  and and University of Ottawa鈥檚. Wellcome supports discovery research into life, health and well-being, and works to take on mental health, infectious disease and climate and health, pledging to spend 拢16 billion over the next 10 years. 

The GSL team will look at AMR from its three main points of spread and how these intersect: human, animal and environmental. They will work with governments to not only give them the best research information, but also tailor solutions for local challenges, a message they are emphasizing this World Antimicrobial Awareness Week and will tackle in more detail during a panel discussion on equity and AMR happening this Thursday. 

鈥淲e know that what works in a high-income country like Canada isn't necessarily going to be what works in a low-income country that struggles to get clean water in their rural hospitals,鈥� says Rogers Van Katwyk.

The researchers say because of AMR, longer hospital stays, drug-resistant strains of pneumonia, tuberculosis and staph, untreatable gonorrhea, and infections leading to amputations are already a reality. In the next 20 to 30 years, the situation could become dire. Women would be at high risk for deadly infections when giving birth via c-section, because without reliable antibiotics, the risk of surgery leading to serious infection would be too great. 

While some experts have flagged AMR as the next potential pandemic, the researchers say it could already be described as one.

鈥淲e already know it's spreading rapidly around the world,鈥� Rogers Van Katwyk says.

 from 2019 showed more than a million deaths a year directly related to AMR. The COVID-19 pandemic seems to have accelerated this process, with research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing a 15 per cent increase in both AMR resistance and AMR-related deaths in U.S. patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in the first year of the pandemic.

鈥淲ith COVID-19, with that many people in hospital 鈥� intubated and experiencing secondary bacterial infections 鈥� that鈥檚 created massive opportunities for more antimicrobial resistance to develop,鈥� Hoffman says. 鈥淚f decision-makers don鈥檛 implement sound policy based on evidence, we may be facing the next crisis without these vital treatments.鈥�

While overreliance in medical settings is a major source of AMR, it is not the only one. Animals receive the same antibiotics humans do, and while some use is responding to infectious disease, a lot is done pre-emptively or as a growth promoter, especially with livestock in industrialized food settings, the researchers say. Resistance can then develop in the animals themselves and in the environment through waste. 

Governments need to tackle all of these sources and how they interact. 

鈥淲e can't bring antibiotic use down to zero, but we can bring it down to a sustainable level where we conserve the drugs鈥� effectiveness,鈥� Rogers Van Katwyk says. 鈥淪o we can keep using antibiotics now and in the future for our kids, and we don鈥檛 lose what is ultimately an incredibly precious resource.鈥�

To register and submit questions to global experts as part of the Importance of Equity in AMR Policy Making panel happening Thursday, Nov. 24 at 10 a.m. EST/3 p.m. GMT, .

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Media Contact: Emina Gamulin, 91亚色 Media Relations, 437-217-6362, egamulin@yorku.ca

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Social epidemiologist can also discuss what pandemic treaty negotiators can learn from international environmental law

TORONTO, Nov. 2, 2022 鈥� The world will be watching as global leaders start to convene this weekend at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP27, to review their countries鈥� commitments to environmental protection in accordance with the .

But are such agreements and treaties effective? Often, the answer is 鈥渘o,鈥� says Social Epidemiologist , an associate professor in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Health who has extensively researched international treaties and their effectiveness.

鈥淧olicymakers should consider adopting binding enforcement mechanisms and researchers can make use of global legal epidemiology to produce rigorous research on the international laws, policies and norms,鈥� says Poirier, co-director of 91亚色鈥檚 Global Strategy Lab, who co-authored a on the topic.

While he speaks in this video 鈥� full clip available upon request 鈥� about why international treaties are often ineffective and how the issue can be addressed, Poirier is also available to comment on:

• Whether international treaties are helpful in addressing global challenges
• What can make treaties impactful and successful?
• What can pandemic treaty negotiators learn from international environmental law?
• How can enforcement mechanisms help to create more effective environmental and other treaties?
• How, and why, trade and finance treaties are more effective than environmental, human rights, humanitarian, maritime and security treaties?

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91亚色 is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change and prepare our students for success. 91亚色's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91亚色鈥檚 campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future. 

Media Contact:

Gloria Suhasini, 91亚色 Media Relations, 647.463.4354, suhasini@yorku.ca

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International treaties are often used by countries to address concerns that cross national boundaries, including the environment, human rights, humanitarian crises, maritime issues, security and trade. 

But while over 250,000 international treaties exist, no study has ever compiled and analyzed the decades鈥� worth of research that assesses such treaties鈥� effectiveness.

That changed on Aug. 2 with the publication of , a landmark study produced by the 91亚色-affiliated  and appearing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers found that with the notable exception of treaties governing trade and finance, international treaties have generally failed to produce their intended effects.

鈥淣ot only did many treaties have no measurable impact, but some treaties may have even led to unintended harmful impacts,鈥� says study author Mathieu J.P. Poirier, professor in the Faculty of Health at 91亚色 U and co-director of the Global Strategy Lab. 鈥淔or instance, the  was found to be the treaty associated with the most harmful effects, including worsened human rights practices, no improvements in health outcomes and, paradoxically, increases in child labour. 

鈥淭hese counterintuitive impacts could stem from repressive governments seeking diplomatic rewards for signing human rights treaties while facing few consequences for failures to comply with treaty provisions.鈥�

Importantly, for treaties governing environmental, human rights, humanitarian, maritime, and security policy domains, the only modifiable treaty design choice with the potential to improve effectiveness was the inclusion of enforcement mechanisms, such as prescribing financial sanctions on countries or expelling countries from treaty bodies.

In contrast, the study found other mechanisms, such as complaint, oversight, and transparency clauses, were not associated with greater effectiveness. 

鈥淭he implications are huge for civil society, multilateral organizations and all government agencies involved in negotiating treaties,鈥� says Poirier. 鈥淭oday there are at least 250,000 treaties, yet relatively few have been evaluated for impact, which means we do not know whether these instruments are effectively serving their intended purpose. And yet, leaders from government, academia, business and civil society routinely call for new treaties to address global challenges under the assumption that most treaties work as intended.鈥�

The only exceptions to the rule of ineffectiveness, the researchers found, are treaties governing international trade and finance, which consistently produced intended effects.

The study, produced out of the Global Strategy Lab by an international team of researchers, was led by Steven Hoffman, professor at  and Dahdaleh Distinguished Chair in Public Health, and Mathieu Poirier, assistant professor at the 91亚色 U School of Global Health and 91亚色 Research Chair in Global Health Equity.

Methodology: 
Using innovative global legal epidemiological methods, the researchers evaluated which treaties have effects, what those effects are, and how future treaties could be designed for greater effectiveness. To that end, GSL researchers conducted a systematic field-wide evidence synthesis, which included a rigorous systematic review of all existing quantitative impact evaluations of treaties.  

About the Global Strategy Lab:
The Global Strategy Lab is a bi-campus interdisciplinary research lab 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. Based at 91亚色 and the University of Ottawa, we advise governments and public health organizations on how to design laws, policies and institutions that make the world a healthier place for everyone.

91亚色 is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change and prepare our students for success. 91亚色's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91亚色鈥檚 campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contact:

Matt LaForge, 91亚色 Media Relations, 437-242-1547, mlaforge@yorku.ca

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