Author
Listed:
- Suparna Chaudhry
- Audrey L. Comstock
- Andrew Heiss
Abstract
This research note asks whether states issuing pandemic-era human rights treaty derogations implemented emergency provisions as intended or used them to abuse human rights during a time of crisis. In an effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries declared states of emergency and derogated (temporarily suspended) from their international human rights treaty obligations. Using data from the Varieties of Democracy PanDem dataset and the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker, we find that states that derogated from their international human rights obligations imposed emergency measures that were temporary and did not violate non-derogable rights. On the other hand, states that did not derogate were more likely impose discriminatory measures, enact emergency measures without time limits and violate non-derogable rights. Our results support the role that flexibility mechanisms such as derogations play in international law and show that states are being sincere about their intentions and not, generally, using these mechanisms to cover abusive behavior.Cette note de recherche s’interroge : les États ayant émis des dérogations aux traités sur les droits de l’homme pendant la pandémie ont-ils instauré des mesures d’urgence comme prévu ou les ont-ils plutôt utilisées pour violer les droits de l’homme en cette période de crise ? Afin de lutter contre la pandémie de Covid-19, de nombreux pays ont déclaré un état d’urgence et ont dérogé à, ou suspendu temporairement, leurs obligations en vertu des traités internationaux relatifs aux droits de l’homme. À l’aide de données issues de l’ensemble de données Varieties of Democracy PanDem et de l’Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker, nous remarquons que les États qui ont dérogé à leurs obligations internationales en matière de droits de l’homme ont imposé des mesures d’urgence temporaires et n’ont pas violé de droits non dérogeables. D’autre part, les États qui n’y ont pas dérogé avaient plus de chances d’imposer des mesures discriminatoires, de décréter des mesures d’urgence non limitées dans le temps et de violer les droits non dérogeables. Nos résultats viennent appuyer le rôle joué par les mécanismes de flexibilité comme les dérogations dans le droit international. Ils montrent aussi que les États font preuve de sincérité quant à leurs intentions et qu’ils n’emploient généralement pas ces mécanismes pour couvrir des comportements abusifs.
Suggested Citation
Suparna Chaudhry & Audrey L. Comstock & Andrew Heiss, 2024.
"Pandemic Pass? Treaty Derogations and Human Rights Practices During COVID-19,"
International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(6), pages 1064-1086, November.
Handle:
RePEc:taf:ginixx:v:50:y:2024:i:6:p:1064-1086
DOI: 10.1080/03050629.2024.2413965
Download full text from publisher
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.
Corrections
All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:ginixx:v:50:y:2024:i:6:p:1064-1086. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/GINI20 .
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through
the various RePEc services.