International Legal Mechanisms of Humanitarian Cooperation with Unrecognized States: Current Practice (COVID-19 Case Study)

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the forefront issues of international humanitarian cooperation with unrecognized states, demonstrating the need to overcome political barriers in the field of healthcare and humanitarian aid. The article examines the international legal foundations and practical mechanisms for providing humanitarian aid to populations of unrecognized states, analyzes the activities of international organizations during the pandemic, and considers legal problems and ways to resolve them. The research novelty consists in examining how humanitarian cooperation influences the international status of unrecognized states under conditions of a massive humanitarian challenge posed by the global COVID-19 pandemic. It is established that universal principles of human rights protection, peremptory norms of international humanitarian law, and erga omnes obligations form a legal basis for providing humanitarian support to populations of territories regardless of their legal status. At the same time, it is substantiated that unrecognized states have a special international legal personality in the field of humanitarian cooperation. It is precisely the territorial administrations of unrecognized states that possess real administrative and organizational powers in the relevant sphere.