Does Self-isolation Violate the Right to Liberty? An Analysis of the European Court of Human Rights’ Practice in Light of the Ukrainian Experience

What is it about?

In 2020 many people became sick and died because of the new infectious disease called COVID-19. To protect its people from this new deadly disease, states decided to implement various measures. One of such measures is self-isolation, which often means that persons need to stay at home. This measure has been also implemented in Ukraine for several groups of people, including persons above the age of 60. States usually regard that self-isolation is a measure that will save lives, and therefore is necessary. Yet, the states are also obliged to take human rights law into account even when they consider something necessary for saving lives. In this article we discuss what self-isolation means in terms of human rights law, and if it violates any human rights. We use Ukrainian legislation as a starting point. We reflect whether Ukrainian government has violated the European Convention of Human Rights and Ukrainian constitution when implementing self-isolation.

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