The COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged in late 2019, continues to unsettle the entire world. Along with the losses of many lives, the pandemic caused maybe one of the most devastating damage in the last century on many fields such as healthcare, economy, trade, and tourism. Even though handling such a crisis requires intensive cooperation on a global scale, many states have been resorted to more isolation and solely national solutions. Therefore, the trajectory of globalisation as well as concepts such as multilateral international systems and international cooperation became questionable. Hence, the rapid contagion of the pandemic has inevitably brought into question the roles of international institutions, primarily the World Health Organization (WHO) but also the United Nations (UN), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the European Union (EU), which are expected to build global cooperation and coordination. 

The purpose of this article is to provide an assessment of the institutional mechanisms and instruments in international law for combatting the global crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and infectious diseases. In the first chapter, WHO’s structure and regulations are explained, and the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR) are examined in detail. The main purpose of WHO is to become a global public health authority which could develop international health norms and coordinate international cooperation on health matters. The WHO Constitution clearly states that it aims the highest attainable health level for all people. The establishment of WHO is the clear demonstration of the strong and collective will of the international community in order to improve the level of the global public health after the Second World War. This is why the member states granted significant normative authorities, which most other international organizations do not possess, to WHO. However, once it became clear in the 21st century that the IHR of WHO was not addressing the realities on the ground anymore and was insufficient for the struggles against pandemics, a new version of IHR was adopted in 2005. This new version brought about great changes in the rules of the international health law, and the system was improved. The SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) pandemic was the main accelerator of the abovementioned changes, and now the IHR (2005) regime is subject to a serious scrutiny during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In the second chapter, the functionality of the WHO system during the COVID-19 pandemic is evaluated, and some solutions for the current deficiencies of the system such as the insufficient framework for the development of the national public health surveillance capacities or the lack of a mechanism to enforce the implementation of the rules are proposed. However, the combat with the pandemic has also once again proven that current global health governance and implementation of the rules are highly dependent on the behavior of states. Therefore, it is accurate to argue that most of the deficiencies of the current system are directly related to the non-compliance of states with IHR norms, even though WHO itself has some shortcomings in general. 

In the final chapter, the direct relation between the global crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and infectious diseases and the roles played by global governance system in the fields of international human rights law, international trade law and international collective security system are examined. In the context of international human rights law, the matters of the right to health, derogation, the confidentiality of personal information and surveillance technologies are discussed. Furthermore, in the context of international trade law, the article focuses on the exceptions stipulated by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and other WTO agreements regarding trade measures and the matter of intellectual property in the medical field. Last but not least, in the context of international collective security system, the first and foremost issue is the role of the UN Security Council in combatting against pandemics, particularly, the Security Council’s previous responses to the other pandemics are examined in comprasion with its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In conclusion of this article, the significance of international law for effectively solving global problems such as pandemics is emphasized. Unfortunately, many factors including the tendency of many states to adopt solely national solutions during crisis moments such as pandemics, the rapid politicization of the global health matters in a way to sideline human rights concerns, the lack of capacity of many states to combat the pandemics, the insufficient level of global funds, the ideological disagreements on public health policies, all restrict the possibility of the creation of a ground for international solidarity and cooperation needed by the international community. The most important core global value which should facilitate the creation of this ground shall be international law due to international law having many critical roles to play for the resolution of global problems. The virus, having caused the current pandemic, is one of the “invisible enemies of humanity” just like global problems which do not recognize national borders such as but not limited to climate change, transboundary criminal organizations or terrorism. The main feature of such global problems is that they are irresolvable by any nation state alone regardless of its national wealth or power. This is why combatting global crises requires the coordination and cooperation of international law and why international law is our most significant global value system.