COVID-19 Pandemic, The World Health Organization, and Global Health Policy

Abstract

The emergence and quick spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the focus and dynamics of the debates about global health, international law, and policy. This shift has overshadowed many of the other controversies in the international sphere. It has also highlighted the tensions that often exist in international affairs—especially in understanding the place and purpose of international institutions, vis-à-vis states, in the general schema of public international law. Central to the international response to the current pandemic is the World Health Organization (WHO)—a treaty-based organization charged with the overarching mandate of ensuring “the highest possible level of health” for all peoples.1 Interestingly, the WHO has also become entangled in a foreign policy spat between China and the United States of America. This work explores the public international law aspects of the  Cosmas Emeziem, LL.B. (Nigeria), LL.M., J.S.D. (Cornell), MPA Fellow at the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA), Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Dr. Emeziem sits on the Editorial Board of the Cornell Policy Review. I thank Professor Muna Ndulo, William Nelson, Cromwell Professor of International and Comparative Law at Cornell Law School, and Dr. Pontian Okoli of the University of Stirling School of Law for their helpful comments. I acknowledge the diligence and excellent work of the Editorial Board of Pace International Law Review. Any error of law or omission of fact is absolutely mine. 1 Constitution of the World Health Organization [WHO] art. 1, June 22, 1946, 62 Stat. 2679, 14 U.N.T.S. 185 [hereinafter WHO Const.].