Coronavirus pandemic in the EU - Fundamental Rights Implications
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has specifically followed the measures put in place by all EU countries to limit the spread of the pandemic and such measures affect fundamental rights. Both the joint report and the reports of each EU Member State, including Latvia, are available. Latvia's reports are compiled by the Latvian Human Rights Centre.
FRA’s third Coronavirus pandemic in the EU: fundamental rights implications report outlines some of the measures EU Member States have put in place to protect public health during the Coronavirus pandemic and examines aspects of the pandemic’s impact on older people. It highlights how the different measures may affect fundamental rights. The report covers the period 1 – 31 May 2020 and focuses on four interrelated issues:
- states of emergency or equivalent measures;
- measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 and mitigate its impact on social life, education, work, the justice system and travel to and within the EU;
- the impact of the virus and efforts to limit its spread on particular groups in society, namely persons with disabilities, detainees, homeless people and victims of domestic violence;
- the impact of the pandemic on the fundamental rights of older persons – as a specific focus.
Latvia's country report is available at:
FRA's second report report outlines some of the measures EU Member States have put in place to protect public health during the Coronavirus pandemic. It highlights how they may affect fundamental rights; where specific Articles are mentioned in the report, these refer to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union as a proxy also for the many other human rights standards that apply at national level. It focuses on four interrelated issues:
- states of emergency or equivalent measures;
- measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 and mitigate its impact on social life, education, work, the justice system, and travel to and within the EU;
- the impact of the virus and efforts to limit its spread on particular groups in society, namely older persons and persons with disabilities, Roma and Travellers, detainees, and homeless persons;
- how tracing apps and other technologies to monitor the spread of COVID-19 can impact fundamental rights, in particular data protection and privacy.
Latvia's country report is available at: https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/lv_report_on_coronavirus_pandemic_may_2020.pdf
FRA's first report focuses on four inter-related issues:
- measures to contain COVID-19 and mitigate its impact in the areas of social life, education, work, and freedom of movement, as well as asylum and migration;
- the impact of the virus and efforts to limit its spread on particular groups in society;
- incidents of xenophobic and racist discrimination, including hate crime;
- the spread of disinformation concerning the outbreak and the implications of related containment measures on data protection and privacy
Latvia's country report is available at: https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/latvia-report-covid-19-april-2020_en.pdf
Publicēts: 2020-07-03