The ongoing sanitary catastrophe and the reaction measures taken by the States affect public health, economy, social fabric, rights and liberties, and not least the way our life is regulated by law. The viability of our legal systems is contingent on their capacity to shape an effective response to the pandemic without undermining our common values enshrined in national constitutions and international treaties.
- How to ensure that States’ legitimate duty to protect life of the nation does not turn into arbitrariness and disproportionate hindrance with our lives?
- To what extent should the State primary responsibility for containing the crisis be checked by other States’ peer review?
- How does the crisis change the role of international institutions in assisting the States and coordinating their responses to the catastrophe ?
The Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law will co-chair the on-line debate on the above issues organised at the special digital session of the Saint-Petersburg Legal Forum on 10 April 2020. The debate will be preceded by a high-level plenary session which will be attended on-line by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejčinović Burić, and the Vice-President of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev.
More information:
- Agenda
- Derogation in Time of Emergency: Factsheet by the European Court of Human Rights
- News in Russian: Права человека в карантине: обсуждение на Петербургском юридическом форуме
- Address by Marija Pejčinović Burić, Secretary General of the Council of Europe
- Message by Linos-Alexander Sicilianos, President of the European Court of Human Rights
- Introductory Speech by Christos Giakoumopoulos, Director General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe
- Speech by Jan Kleijssen, Director of the Information Society - Action against Crime of the Council of Europe
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