scholarly journals Eswatini's legislative response to COVID-19: Whither human rights?

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Musa Njabulo Shongwe

Having been confronted with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kingdom of Eswatini has had to adopt both soft and hard response measures. The constitutional emergency response framework had not envisaged the type of emergency brought about by COVID-19, forcing the state to enact extraordinary regulatory measures. Unprecedented emergency powers have been conferred on state functionaries. Questions have arisen as to the nature of these emergency powers, the manner in which these powers have been exercised and the absence of special oversight mechanisms. The response measures and regulations have had an unparalleled impact on lives and livelihoods of Emaswati. This article explores the nature of emergency powers in the laws of Eswatini, and the particular effects of the COVID-19 regulations on human rights. This article commences with an analysis of constitutional emergency powers in Eswatini and the limitations thereof, and considers the question of why the state did not invoke a constitutional state of emergency. The article proceeds to examine the nature of statutory emergency powers under the Disaster Management Act, and considers whether there are effective legal limitations on the exercise of executive authority and effective safeguards against the abuse of power. The article then deals with the particular impact of the COVID-19 response legal framework on human rights protection. In this regard, the article advances examples of situations where rights have been infringed. Finally, the article proposes that the state's response measures should continuously endeavour to mitigate the long-term impact on human rights.

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 69-90
Author(s):  
Maja Nastić

Given the current pandemic coronavirus, the paper analyzes the state’s response to the dis- ease caused by the virus (COVID-19) from the standpoint of two neighbouring countries i.e. the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Serbia. Special attention was paid to the states’ response to the pandemic from human rights perspective. The research was conducted into the patterns of their “struggle”, especially as regards the human rights restrictions they had opted for within their constitutional framework. The starting point of the paper was that human rights often are the victims of the crises and that they are easily restricted for a longer periods. In this respect, the author deals with possible answers to the questions about the quality and content of human rights, and how the protection of human rights was ensured in these exceptional circumstances. This legal framework was linked to current statistics on the number of COVID-19 cases. Having analyzed the response of the two states, it could be noted that both states have constitutional provisions governing the state of emergency, allowing them the rule of law in these exceptional circumstances. Both constitutions recognize a list of human rights that may be derogated in state of emergency. However, in Croatia, the state of emergency was not introduced, and the human rights were restricted in accordance with the given epidemiological situation. In Serbia, the struggle against COVID-19 took place in state of emergency and was marked by an extremely restrictive regime of human rights, which was partly in conflict with the constitutional order. The constitutional concept of absolute protection of human rights, in their broadest sense, had proved unsustainable in practice.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 12-62
Author(s):  
Raina Nikolova

The article analyzes the Bulgarian administrative legal framework on emergencies (state of emergency, crisis management and overcoming, emergency situation and emergency epidemic situation). It indicates the temporary restrictions of the right of free movement of the citizens provided in the legislation. The article discusses the competence of the central executive authorities, interdepartmental bodies and territorial authorities (regional governors and mayors) to deal with a pandemic. The article discusses also the legal basis and justifications for the introduction of the curfew by some of the regional governors and mayors during the state of emergency, caused by SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19).


Author(s):  
Jorge Ernesto ROA ROA

LABURPENA: Kasuen ikerketa-metodologia erabiliz, Santo Domingo vs. Kolonbia epaiari buruzko iruzkinean, nagusiki, inter-amerikar esparruko giza eskubideen babesari lotutako egiturazko alderdiak aipatzen dira; besteak beste, eta bereziki: nola erabiltzen duen Inter-amerikar Auzitegiak Nazioarteko Zuzenbide Humanitarioa barne-gatazka armatuetako egoeretan; zer erlazio dagoen zigor-jurisdikzio militarraren eta Indar Armatuetako kideek egindako giza eskubideen urraketen ikerketaren artean; zein diren Estatuaren erantzukizuna aitortzeko egintzetarako baldintzak, eta zer elkarreragin dagoen nazioetako eta nazioarteko instantzia judizialen artean giza eskubideen urraketen ordainaz den bezainbatean. Egokiera-arrazoiengatik, alde batera utziko da Kolonbiako Estatuak urratu zituen Amerikar Konbentzioko eskubideetako bakoitzari buruz Giza Eskubideetarako Nazioarteko Auzitegiak erabakitakoaren azterketa. RESUMEN: Mediante la aplicación de la metodología de estudio de caso, el comentario a la Sentencia Santo Domingo vs. Colombia se centra en aspectos estructurales sobre la protección de los derechos humanos en el ámbito interamericano, en especial, el uso que la Corte Interamericana hace del Derecho Internacional Humanitario en situaciones que se producen en contextos de conflictos armados internos, la relación entre la jurisdicción penal militar y la investigación de las violaciones a los derechos humanos cometidas por miembros de las Fuerzas Armadas, los requisitos de los actos de reconocimiento de la responsabilidad del Estado y la interacción entre las instancias judiciales nacionales e internacionales en materia de reparación de violaciones a los derechos humanos. Por razones de oportunidad, se prescinde del análisis del pronunciamiento de la Corte IDH sobre cada uno de los derechos de la Convención Americana que fueron violados por el Estado de Colombia. ABSTRACT: By means of the problem based learning methodology, the analysis of the judgment Santo Domingo vs. Colombia focuses on structural features of the human rights protection within the Inter-American area, specially, the use made by the Inter-American Court of International Humanitarian Law in situations within contexts of internal military conflict, the relationship between military criminal jurisdiction and the investigation of human rights violations committed by Army forces, the requirements of the acts of recognition of the State responsibility and the interaction between the national and international judicial instances regarding the redress for human rights violations. For reasons of practical expediency, we will not analyze the judgment by the Inter-American Court on each of the rights of the American Convention breached by the State of Colombia.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Nedim Begović

Abstract The article analyses the case law of the European Court of Human Rights on accommodation of Islamic observances in the workplace. The author argues that the Court has not hitherto provided adequate incentives to the states party to the European Convention on Human Rights to accommodate the religious needs of Muslim employees in the workplace. Given this finding, the author proposes that the accommodation of Islam in the workplace should, as a matter of priority, be provided within a national legal framework. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, this could be achieved through an instrument of contracting agreement between the state and the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina.


Author(s):  
Yosefina Daku

As the law states, Indonesia  provide the protection of the rights for of all people without the discrimination. By the basis of the mandate of the Preamble to the Constitution of 1945 that "a just and civilized humanity," the Indonesian state guarantees of a society that is fair. Political rights granted by the country with regard to discrimination is legal protection by the state against women's political rights. By participating in the convention and recognized in the form of Law Number 7 Year of 1984 on Ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, an attempt by the state to remove the problems in realizing the equality of women and men. Therefore  the  problem  that  can  formulated are: 1) how the legal protection of women's political rights in Indonesia? 2) how the implementation of Law Number 7 Year of 1984 on Ratification of the Convention on the Eliminationof All Forms of Discrimination Against Women Related Political Rights of Women?. The purpose of this study was to examine the legal protection by the state against the ful fillment of women's political rights in Indonesia and the implementation of protection of women's political rights pursuant of Law Number7 Year of 1984. This research is a normative law. The technique used in this research is to use the concept approach and statutory approach to reviewing the legislations and legal literatures. Rights protection as a form of justice for each person more specifically regulated in Law about Human Rights. Protection of the rights granted to women by the state including the protection of the political field regulated in some provisions of other legislation. By removing discrimination against women in it’s implementation still look at the culture and customs which is certainly not easy to do and the state is obliged to realize the objectives of the convention


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 753-777
Author(s):  
Vera Shikhelman

Abstract In recent years, there has been an increasing amount of research about the implementation of international law. However, there has been almost no empirical research about implementing decisions of international human rights institutions. The decisions of those institutions are usually regarded as soft law, and states do not have a clear legal obligation to implement them. In this article, I bring original empirical data about how and when states implement decisions of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC) in individual communications. I hypothesize that the following factors influence the readiness of states to implement the views of the HRC: (i) the level of democracy and human rights protection in the state; (ii) internal capacity; (iii) strength of civil society; (iv) type of remedy; (v) representation on the HRC; (6) subject matter of the communication. I find that the most important factor for implementing remedies granted by the Committee is the high human rights score of the state. The internal capacity of the state is also significant but to a lesser extent than found in previous studies. Also, I find a certain connection between the state being represented on the HRC and its willingness to implement the remedies.


2020 ◽  
pp. 239965442095421
Author(s):  
Ben Anderson

The paper traces the development of UK ‘state of emergency’ legislation through three ‘scenes of emergency’: the introduction of the Emergency Powers Act in 1920, a revision to the Act in 1964, and discussion within government departments about possible changes to emergency powers in 1973. Through these scenes, and contra to existing work on the state of emergency as an occasion for the intensification of sovereignty, I show how the introduction of and revision to ‘state of emergency’ legislation were occasions for a double concern – with the excessiveness of the state, as per Foucault’s analysis of liberalism, but also for the excessiveness of events. In ‘scenes of emergency’ a specific ‘state effect’ was dis/re-assembled: the promise of the providential state that protected life through control of events. As emergency legislation was subject to deliberation and contestation, other versions of the state surfaced: beginning with the interested, classed, state and the tyrannical state as emergency powers were introduced and ending with the anxious state that loses faith in the efficacy of emergency powers in a world of changing events. As well as arguing that work on governing emergencies should be orientated to ‘scenes of emergency’ in which that which governs relates to excess, the paper suggests that assemblage approaches to the state should be concerned with dis/re-assembly.


Author(s):  
Chiara Altafin ◽  
Karin Lukas ◽  
Manfred Nowak

The chapter presents and assesses the various normative layers—domestic, European, regional, international—on which the European Union’s (EU’s) commitment to human rights is built. It analyses the interaction of EU primary law, general principles of law derived from constitutional traditions of Member States, and international human rights law, including relevant regional instruments such as the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Social Charter, and the Istanbul Convention. It is contended that, despite an impressive and pioneering normative framework on human rights, the EU currently faces a number of challenges that call for a strong stance on human rights realisation in all areas of its competence and influence. Enduring deficiencies in the relevant normative framework include the absence of a fully fledged EU competence to legislate in the area of human rights protection and the application of ‘double standards’ in the EU’s approach to human rights internally and externally, leading to a deep divide between internal and external policies guided by starkly different logics. Further areas of concern include the difficulties of the Charter of Fundamental Rights implementation in view of EU institutions and Member States’ competencies, which have become particularly apparent in the EU’s response to the Eurozone crisis and the arising tensions between EU and Member States’ austerity measures, as well as the uneven nature of the EU and Member States’ human rights obligations with regard to the international legal framework, leading to gaps and overlaps.


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