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Abstract
This study presents a critique of the way international law communicates science. It lays down the argument that international law, through the way it communicates science, contributes to mistrust of science. The main thesis of this study is that the language of international law communicates specific depictions of scientific knowledge and expertise that shape the framing of global problems such as vaccine hesitancy, which was listed among the top ten threats to global health in 2019. Against the backdrop of vaccine hesitancy, this research specifically looks at the language and rhetoric of the World Health Organization (WHO). This study investigates the guidelines, recommendations, position papers, resolutions, and statements issued by the WHO. This study argues that the way WHO communicates science contribute to a setting wherein people become distrustful of scientific knowledge and experts, and sceptical of how health risks and crises are problematized. This then leads to a ripe ecosystem for vaccine hesitancy and misinformation to thrive. This aim of this research is not to provide a solution under international law to the problem of vaccine hesitancy. Rather, it aims to understand the problem of vaccine hesitancy and ask what international law contributes to it.