COVID-19 pandemic impact on fundamental rights in EU member countries

BySusanna Gevorgyan

COVID-19 pandemic impact on fundamental rights in EU member countries

 

The coronavirus pandemic triggered restrictive measures across the European Union, interfering with a wide range of fundamental rights. The Fundamental Rights Report 2021 compiled by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights points out that although the measures were aimed at protecting people’s health, they did negatively affect certain rights such as those relating to movement and assembly, private and family life, including personal data protection, and education, work, and social security.

“COVID-19 tested the resolve of fundamental rights protection systems across the EU. Governments need to put in place lasting structures to tackle inequality, racism, and exclusion. Only a rights-based approach allows governments to build inclusive societies,” noted Michael O’Flaherty, the Director of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, commenting on the report’s findings.

Impact on fundamental rights

As many EU states declared a state of emergency in the early spring of 2020 in an attempt to contain the pandemic, people saw some of their fundamental rights being impacted.

The emergency situation in many countries generated disinformation which affected citizens’ trust in democracy, the rule of law, and fundamental rights. A large-scale virtual survey regarding COVID-19 and fake news in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom has revealed that more than half of the respondents in each country had seen COVID-19 related fake news.

The right to liberty and security and the right to private and family life were deeply affected as a result of the measures intended to restrict the movement of individuals. Thus, Austria, Bulgaria, Italy, and Lithuania placed entire cities, regions, and provinces under quarantine while in France, Greece, Italy, and Spain people were not allowed to leave their homes without authorization.

The protracted healthcare crisis has deprived many people of equal access to healthcare systems with low-priority medication, including surgical interventions, often being suspended. For instance, in Romania, the number of cancer patients in hospitals dropped by 46% between 2019 and 2020 while in Finland, the number of individuals waiting to receive non-urgent specialized healthcare had reached 137,165 by the end of August 2020.

Labor-related human rights have also been significantly affected. Unemployment has risen, predominantly among the young. For instance, in comparison to December 2019, the unemployment rate among people under 25 jumped by 3% to reach 17.8% in December 2020 meaning that 438,000 more young people were jobless. According to Eurostat, the overall unemployment rate in the EU increased by 1% and stood at 7.5% in December 2020. Unemployment grew disproportionally across different sectors with tourism, hospitality, entertainment, and the arts being the worst hit. On the other hand, the restrictive measures encouraged working from home which, in turn, tended to prolong working hours and created an overlap between work and personal life.

Most affected groups

Although the pandemic affected the overwhelming majority of the population one way or another, those impacted the worst were the most vulnerable.

“Thus, it further entrenched existing inequalities and discrimination, and exacerbated social exclusion and marginalisation,” the report reads.

The elderly were severely affected as they faced more restrictions relating to isolation and physical distancing and those living in institutional settings had to observe strict physical distancing rules as visits were banned, all of which impacted their access to goods and services.

People with disabilities were subjected to higher health risks because of the possibility of COVID-19 infection and those in care facilities also faced bans on visits resulting in isolation and psychological stress. The shift to online education also affected young people with disabilities with the situation only deepening the digital divide between those with disabilities and the rest of the population, the report ascertained.

The number of cases of domestic violence increased during the pandemic partly due to working from home or unemployment. Czechia and Germany, for instance, reported that calls to their national domestic violence hotlines rose by 50% and 20%, respectively between March and June 2020.

LGBTI people experienced increasingly restricted access to health services, stigmatization, discrimination, and hate speech, even being blamed for the pandemic, an increased risk of violence, and difficulties in accessing the labor market and social assistance services.

Travellers, refugees, migrants, and homeless people were also among the most affected groups.

Civil society amid coronavirus pandemic

The pandemic-related restrictive measures also had a serious effect on civil society organizations. The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights conducted an online consultation and analyzed the responses of 77 human rights organizations to the question, “how have the measures taken since March 2020 to address the COVID-19 pandemic affected their work, and how could organizations mitigate adverse effects?” In response, 75% of those surveyed considered that, overall, the restrictive measures were justified:

  • 56% found the measures to be proportional,
  • 75% declared negative effects on their activities of which 41% expressed concern that the negative effects may continue for the next six months.
  • 27% of the organizations mentioned they faced financial difficulties “often” and 15 % “every time”.
  • 29% noted that lower work input by volunteers was “often” a significant challenge.

Amid such developments, in November 2020, the European Parliament stressed that “even in a state of public emergency, the fundamental principles of the rule of law, democracy, and respect for fundamental rights must prevail, and all emergency measures, derogations, and limitations are subject to three general conditions, those of necessity, proportionality in the narrow sense and temporariness”.