Limitations on Human Rights in Times of COVID-19 Pandemic: International Law Perspectives

The COVID-19 pandemic is a historic event that shook the world at the beginning of 2020. The outbreak and the spread of the disease caused by the SARS‑CoV‑2 virus has affected all levels of social interactions, including the sphere of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The states were forced to react immediately to the drastically deteriorating situation and to impose measures that would prevent the spread of the virus and at the same time would effectively protect public health. Such measures included certain restrictions imposed upon the realization of human rights. The majority of rights given to individuals by virtue of being a human are not absolute, they are objects to limitations and derogation. The states legitimize their interference with the rights either referring to the limitation clauses of international treaties or derogating from human rights through an official international procedure. The present research paper is dedicated to the analysis of the two above-mentioned concepts from the point of view of international law, to their applicability in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to the elaboration of the most optimal model for legitimizing interference with human rights which would allow states to strike a fair balance between public interest reflected as health protection and individual rights.