Dr. Sharefah Almuhana
Assistant Professor of Public International Law – KILAW

Abstract:

This paper discusses the development of the notion of public health as a national security priority in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and how safeguarding this notion forces governments to take measures contradictory to their morals that involve violations of international human rights law, most of the provisions of which have become part of customary international law that is binding on all states. The problem is that in public international law, there are no exceptions to justify such violations under any circumstances, including the current COVID-19 pandemic. This is because these violations are inconsistent with the inderogable right to life and health. Even the Draft Articles on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters 2016, intended to represent an international framework designated to address all types of disasters, including health emergencies, have fallen short of addressing the ethical, legal, political, and economic challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.This paper aims to shed light on measures or practices undertaken by several governments as part of their efforts to combat COVID-19 that represent barriers to access to adequate health care for aliens, vulnerable populations, and people of poor and nonindustrial developing and less-developed states.
This paper also aims to acknowledge the urgent need to establish an ethical legal framework crafted specifically to address large-scale health emergencies such as COVID-19. Such a framework should consider issues related to states’ duties towards aliens and vulnerable populations, resource allocation, effective monitoring systems, systems of accountability, and systems to resolve conflicts between human rights of a similar nature, namely, the right to life and health.

Keywords: Coronavirus, Ethics, Morals, Bioethics, International Health Law, Expulsion, Removal, International minimum standard.

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