A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF STATE-IMPOSED HEALTH EMERGENCIES AND VIOLATIONS OF CIVIL LIBERTIES DURING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

Abstract

Our future generations will ever remember the year 2020 for the human tragedy caused by the covid-19 pandemic, which was the worst in human history. That year saw the emergence of the coronavirus disease covid-19, which initially appeared in 2019 in the Chinese region of Wuhan and eventually spread around the world. It compelled states around the world to impose history's most devastating health emergency, in which people were forced to live in their homes for years without food or consumables, and all human rights constitutionally guaranteed to them were suspended for years. It also saw the total collapse of the medical system and the collapse of the government machinery. If someone in the family was found to be infected, he was removed away from his family and admitted to isolation wards in hospitals where no relatives were allowed to see the patients. It has also been reported in the press that many patients died in isolation because they were not even visited and cared for by medical staff, and in some cases, patients perished simply due to a lack of vital supplies such as food, water, and medicines. Countless deaths were reported all across the world, and many were seen crying and sinking on their knees after learning that one of their relatives had died as a result of the covid-19 sickness. The author through this article intends to understand the role played by the state in such emergent situations by investigating whether the state reacted as per the law of the nations or acted in defiance of it and did anything it ever wanted to seize power as an authoritarian.