CAN CHINA BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ITS ROLE IN THE OUTBREAK OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC?

Year 2021, Volume: 16 Issue: 2, 527 - 566, 20.10.2021

Mesut Şöhret

Abstract

A breach of an international obligation entails that State's international responsibility, which entails a reparation obligation of that
State or the right of the injured State to seek redress or to resort to
countermeasures, or, in certain cases, the international community as
a whole to respond by certain means to this unlawful act. The most
usual consequence of an act contrary to international law is that the
state that suffered from this act automatically resorted to the
measures and procedures stipulated in international law in order to
fulfill the obligation violated by the state that came into effect or to
obtain redress from that state.
When we look at the studies on the concept of state responsibility in the literature, it is seen that there is a violation of the obligation in the regional sense due to the arrangement of the damages caused
by the neighboring states to each other or the damage of more than
one state as a result of an event. In this regard, within the scope of the
concept of state responsibility, it is seen that a phenomenon such as
the pandemic, which affects all the states of the world globally, is not
discussed much. Although the studies on COVID-19 so far have generally dealt with the economic, political, psychological, sociological and
health services dimensions caused by the pandemic, it is seen that the
issue has not been examined much from the international law dimension.
This is also valid for the COVID-19 Pandemic, which affected the
whole world and caused more than 4.5 million deaths and nearly 1
billion people to become ill. At this point, people and governments are
trying to find the answer to the question of who is or should be responsible for this global epidemic. In a way, everyone is looking for a
scapegoat. In particular, the USA and European states expect China to
take full responsibility as a state and compensate for its losses on the
grounds that it does not fulfill its international obligations and causes
the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic to the world. In this respect,
this study explains the concept of state responsibility in international
law in general and examines the approaches to the COVID-19 pandemic through this concept. Although the studies on COVID-19 so far
have generally dealt with the economic, political, psychological, sociological and health services dimensions caused by the pandemic, it is
seen that the issue has not been examined much from the international law dimension.
In the study, the basic principles regarding the concept of State
Responsibility were explained using the literature review method,
and then the problem of whether the Chinese government fulfilled its
responsibilities and international obligations in the spread of the
COVID-19 epidemic to the whole world was tried to be examined.
Although the concept of state responsibility is one of the basic principles of international law, there are not many academic studies directly examining this issue in the literature, since the pandemic, which has been affecting the whole world for about two years, is relatively
new. In this respect, it is expected that this study will contribute to
the literature.

Keywords

International Law, State Responsibility, COVID-19 Pandemic, International Wrongful Act, Breach of International Obligation

ÇİN, KOVİD-19 PANDEMİSİNİN YAYILMASINDAN SORUMLU TUTULABİLİR Mİ?

Abstract

Uluslararası bir yükümlülüğün ihlali, o Devletin uluslararası
sorumluluğunu gerektirir, bu da ilgili devletin tazminat
yükümlülüğünü veya zarar gören devletin tazminat arama ya da karşı
önlemlere başvurma hakkını veya bazı durumlarda belirli yollarla bu
yasa dışı eyleme karşı uluslararası toplumun bir bütün olarak yanıt
verme hakkını gerektirmektedir. Uluslararası hukuka aykırı bir fiilin
en olağan sonucu, bu fiilden zarar gören devletin, ihlal ettiği
yükümlülüğünü yerine getirmek veya tazminini sağlamak için
otomatik olarak uluslararası hukukta öngörülen tedbir ve usullere
başvurmasıdır.
Literatürde devlet sorumluluğu kavramı ile ilgili çalışmalara
bakıldığında genel itibariyle çalışmaların komşu devletlerin birbirlerine verdikleri zararların tanzim edilmesi veya meydana gelen bir
olay neticesinde birden fazla devletin zarar görmesi nedeniyle
bölgesel anlamda oluşan bir yükümlülük ihlalinin olduğu
görülmektedir. Bu bakımdan devlet sorumluluğu kavramı kapsamında küresel olarak tüm dünya devletlerini etkileyen pandemi gibi bir
olgunun pek fazla tartışılmadığı görülmektedir.
Bu durum tüm dünyayı etkileyen ve 4,5 milyondan fazla insanın
ölmesine ve yaklaşık 1 milyar insanın hasta olmasına neden olan
COVID-19 Pandemisi içinde geçerlidir. Gelinen noktada insanlar ve
hükümetler sözkonusu bu küresel salgından kimin sorumlu olduğu
veya olması gerektiği sorusunun cevabını bulmaya çalışıyorlar. Bir
bakıma aslında herkes bir günah keçisi arıyor. Özellikle ABD ve Avrupalı devletler, Çin'in uluslararası yükümlülüklerini yerine getirmediği
ve COVID-19 pandemisinin dünyaya yayılmasına neden olduğu gerekçesiyle devlet olarak tüm sorumluluğu üstlenmesini ve meydana
gelen zararlarının karşılanmasını bekliyorlar. Bu bakımdan bu
çalışma genel olarak Uluslararası hukukta yer alan devlet sorumluluğu kavramını açıklayarak bu kavram üzerinden COVID-19 pandemisine yönelik yaklaşımları incelemektedir. Şimdiye kadar yapılan
COVID-19 ile ilgili çalışmalar genel olarak pandeminin neden olduğu
ekonomik, siyasi, psikolojik, sosyolojik ve sağlık hizmetleri boyutuyla
ele alsalarda konunun uluslararası hukuk boyutundan pek fazla
incelenmediği görülmektedir.
Çalışmada literature taraması yöntemi kullanılarak Devlet
Sorumluluğu kavramına ilişkin olarak temel prensipler açıklanmış ve
sonrasında ise Çin hükümetinin COVID-19 salgının tüm dünyaya
yayılmasındaki sorumlulukları ve uluslararası yükümlülükleri yerine
getirip getirmediği sorunsalı incelenmeye çalışılmıştır. Her he kadar
devlet sorumluluğu kavramı uluslararası hukukun temel prensiplerinden biri olsa da yaklaşık 2 yıldan beri tüm dünyayı etkileyen
pandeminin göreceli olarak yeni olması nedeniyle literatürde doğrudan bu konuyu inceleyen pek fazla akademik çalışma bulunmamaktadır. Bu bakımdan bu çalışmanın literature katkı sağlayacağı
beklenmektedir.

Keywords

Uluslararası Hukuk, Devlet Sorumluluğu, COVID-19 Pandemisi, Uluslararası Haksız Eylem Uluslararası Yükümlülüğün İhlali

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