“International Human Rights Law & COVID - 19”

Mr. Atul Alexander, Asst. Professor law in West Bengal National University of Judicial Sciences was the guest lecturer for this webinar. The session was started off by a welcome address by Mahima Makhija. He started off his lecture by stating the shock and atrocities faced by the countries due to World War II. He said that it was during that time that the UN was established and it was the first time that the term “Human Rights” was used in the UN Charter. After this, the UDHR followed by ICCPR and ICESCR were laid down which gave utmost importance to the protection of the human rights of the citizens belonging to the countries who are the signatories of the same. Further, he spoke about the first legislation with regard to Human Rights in India, i.e., Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993. He spoke about the violation of several rights that have been violated due to the COVID pandemic. Rights such Freedom of Movement of the migrant labourers were violated due to the imposition of the lockdown by the government. Owing to the mandated use of the ‘arogya setu’ App by the government which has access to the details of the app user is a violation of the right to privacy of the students. Also the right to employment has also been violated at a greater extent due to this existing pandemic. He also emphasized on how the WHO and UN has failed in combating with this pandemic globally. Furthermore, he spoke about the involvement of China in COVID and from his research he stated that China could not be taken to the International Court of Justice as they can take immunity under the ‘State Immunity’ doctrine and he further went on explaining the said doctrine to us. In his talk he also drew comparison with the situation of the ‘Ebola’ attack with that of the current scenario. While concluding his talk he said that not one specific law is violated due to this COVID-19 but the Human Rights are at forefront. He also said that the States under the exception of National Security can ward off such violations and can escape the liability of being sued by anyone for the violation of such human rights of the citizens.