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The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has created extraordinary challenges for authorities in all Council of Europe member states. They must respond effectively to this crisis, while ensuring that the measures they take do not undermine Europe’s founding values of human rights, democracy and the rule of law, and remain proportionate. The standards set by the European Court of Human Rights and other Council of Europe bodies always reflect the best practices of European states. In the current circumstances, the primary responsibility of the Organization is to provide its members with a platform for discussion on how to address the challenges associated with the crisis and to provide an overview of the existing legal framework.
This was the objective of the online regional roundtable »The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on human rights and the rule of law » held on April 28, 2020 with the participation of representatives of the constitutional and supreme courts, government officials at the European Court of Human Rights, ombudsmen, ministries of justice, national training institutions and Universities of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. and Turkey.
The event was opened and moderated by Mikhail Lobov, Head of the Department of Human Rights Policy and Cooperation, and presented an overview of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, provided by current and former lawyers from the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights, on a series of issues. arising from limitations imposed to contain the pandemic. These issues include, for example, the obligations of States to guarantee the right to life, protection against inhuman and degrading treatment, the right to privacy in light of access to medical services and data protection personal, and deprivation of liberty in correlation with restriction of private life. movements.
Several issues to be addressed in subsequent debates crystallized during a dynamic discussion among the participants, who numbered at most more than 60. Among these issues were access to courts and issues related to online trials, as well as the pandemic itself as a new global challenge to human rights regimes, emerging well after the last global pandemic, over a hundred years ago.
The discussion platform containing relevant information and good practices will then be extended to other Member States, with regular tailor-made, country-specific and regional-level webinars, which will become “a marketplace of ideas” on how to address specific human rights and the rule of law. problems. This could potentially result in new standards which would be examined by the Council of Europe.
The online roundtable complemented other Council of Europe actions related to the pandemic, including the launch of a Web page and publication by the Secretary General of a toolbox to Member States on respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law in the context of the COVID-19 health crisis.
The activity was organized within the framework of the joint program of the European Union and the Council of Europe “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022“.
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