Welcome to the European Parliamentary Research Service podcast on upholding human rights in Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As governments scramble to protect their populations from COVID-19, many of the personal freedoms and rights we take for granted are being temporarily taken away.

Although certain rights enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights

can be suspended in situations of emergency, an extra effort is needed to prevent abuse

and protect the most vulnerable. Want to know more? Stay with us.

In many countries, we're not allowed to meet, even to visit relatives.

Our children can't go to school and our privacy is open to challenge by authorities trying

to control the spread of the virus.

To address the unprecedented sanitary crisis and contain the spread of COVID-19, many member states

have derogated from certain human rights,

notably the freedoms of movement and association, protected under the European Convention of Human Rights,

one of the key instruments to safeguard fundamental rights across Europe.

Article 15 of the Convention deals with human rights protection during emergency situations,

such as wars and national catastrophes, allowing member

states to temporarily suspend certain rights in order to solve the crisis at hand.

There are, however, clear boundaries and under no circumstances must derogations serve as a way

to circumvent other international norms or as a pretext for limiting freedom of political debate or compromising the values of a democratic society.

And there is a list of absolute rights, including the right to life and the prohibition of torture or slavery which may never be subject to any derogation, even if the world should fall apart.

Until now, Article 15 had mainly applied to situations of

terrorism or political violence, but the pandemic has put entire countries under lockdown,

devastated economies and threatened the future of millions of people around the world.

So by August 2020, 10 member states of the Council of Europe had announced their intention

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