Pandemics and International Law: The Need for Action [Turkey]

INTRODUCTION

As someone who has actually survived two major earthquakes, what we are living through now with the pandemic is a level ten earthquake—devastating and upheaving our lives in so many different ways. As my colleague Patricia Galvao Teles noted, this level of pandemic is a collective experience that we have not seen since a century ago with the Spanish Flu. It has demonstrated to us, as happens in disasters in general, the structural deficiencies of our current system. My colleagues have outlined some of these deficiencies; I will reiterate some of those noted previously but frame this issue in a format that speaks to whether we need an additional framework to address pandemics.

I will address—and reiterate—much that has already been said today, specifically on whether there is a need for an instrument of a comprehensive nature, such as a treaty, to address the pandemic. I will then follow with a few thoughts on how, if such an instrument is necessary, it can be created.