The Covid-19 pandemic manifested the urgent need to strengthen international health law. Historically, health governance has largely been considered a national matter, regulated primarily through municipal laws. Although the World Health Organization (WHO) is one of the oldest international institutions within international law, the over-reliance on national legal frameworks has hindered the development of a comprehensive international treaty on health law.

At present, international health governance relies primarily on soft international law, i.e., non-binding instruments such as guidelines, recommendations, and best practices for member states. However, the Covid-19 pandemic exposed gaps in global preparedness and response mechanisms, necessitating the need for a binding international treaty to coordinate pandemic prevention, preparedness, and equitable response across nations.

The International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005, though adopted by 196 countries, proved insufficient to manage a crisis of this scale. The IHR 2005 replaced the older IHR 1969, which had focused mainly on controlling specific diseases such as cholera, plague, and yellow fever. It was adopted under Article 21 of the WHO........

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