Prof. Yousef El-Beheiry
Professor of Public International Law and Former Dean – Faculty of Legal – Economic and Social Sciences – University of Cadi Ayyad – Marrakech – Morocco

Abstract:

Many countries have taken several procedural measures to confront the Covid-19 pandemic, which has caused a rise in deaths and overcrowding in hospitals. Among these measures are imposing a state of emergency and quarantine, to preserve the public health of citizens, closing air, land and sea borders and developing security barriers to limit the movement Individuals, increasing the frequency of laboratory swabs, and adopting a treatment protocol for people infected with Corona virus, the latest of which is launching an electronic application to track infected people to prevent the outbreak of the epidemic.
International conventions allow the restriction of some basic public freedoms, in the event of exceptional emergencies that threaten the safety and security of citizens such as epidemics and natural disasters, allowing governments to take national measures to temporarily restrict some public freedoms, in order to confront the health crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, these measures must be provided for by law, they must be necessary and temporary; moreover, they should be implemented transparently in order not to leave the public authorities any room to misinterpret or arbitrarily restrict them. Regardless, it is noticeable that the fight against Covid-19 virus created a chance for many governments to abuse their power and use violence against citizens to the extent that some societies have suffered from the terror and violence practiced by the security authorities more than the outbreak of the Corona virus pandemic.
To study this problem, this research has relied on a descriptive analytical approach to study the extent of the commitment of states to respect international standards of human rights and public freedoms in the application of the state of emergency and procedural measures taken in the framework of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The methodological approach used in this research aims to conduct a descriptive and analytical study of the measures and procedures taken by states in the event of an emergency related to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. It also adopts a careful tracking and investigation that seeks to discover the fact that the fight against the Covid-19 constituted an opportunity for some countries to abuse power, and to breach international standards for human rights and public freedoms.
The research is divided into three main sections to address the main problem and provide answers to the central question: Does the pandemic constitute an explicit declaration of the retreat from the universality of human rights and commitment to ensuring the principles of public freedoms for citizens? The first section of the research deals with measures to confront the pandemic and state sovereignty. The second section presented emergency measures that were taken by countries. The third section discussed human rights violations within the measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the conclusion, the research examined the controversy and debate in the legal circles in Europe regarding compensation and reparations for the victims, as a result of the exceptional measures ordered by state agencies during the period of the spread of Covid-19, and imposing their tort liability before the European Court of Human Rights. This was confirmed by the French jurisprudence stating that it is possible to compensate for damages resulting from medical errors, forced vaccinations, medical accidents and hospital diseases, which caused death or permanent disability.

Keywords: Covid-19, state of emergency, sovereignty, public freedoms, international community.

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