Human rights put to the test by Covid-19

As part of the " Covid Initiative " and the " Regards sur une crise " cycle, professors from the Collège de France and the Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique have, for several months now, been helping to shed light on the many facets of the systemic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, beyond strictly medical issues.

In order to broaden and deepen this reflection, the Collège de France and the Collège Belgique of the Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique, which have maintained fruitful links for many years, have decided to join forces and bring a European, French-speaking and interdisciplinary dimension to this contribution, taking the time to reflect in depth on the multiple issues at stake in the pandemic. The first concrete elements of this joint action consist of a series of webinars broadcast live, bringing together professors from both institutions to compare their thoughts in the form of dialogues on cross-cutting themes. Attendance is free and open to all, including members of the public, journalists, students and researchers, without prior registration.

Description

Since March 2020, most of our societies, in Europe and elsewhere, have had to comply with measures restricting rights and freedoms for the first time in peacetime. While many of these measures may be justified on health grounds, they have also given rise to legitimate concerns. At a time when the end of the crisis seems to be in sight, it is essential to look back at what the pandemic has revealed about the state of human rights in Europe and around the world. How should we understand the "right to health"? How does it relate to so-called "economic and social" rights, particularly the rights of workers and populations in precarious situations? What is the content of the obligations of prevention and diligent protection that derive from it for States, and how are they determined? What is the link between the right to health and (public) health protection? Should the right to health and the protection of health take precedence over all other considerations and rights in the event of conflict, and under what conditions? Should the tension between freedom of movement and the right to health, which has dominated the discussion of national and international health policies since the end of the 19th^century , be revisited, particularly in the light of contemporary migration flows and policies, but also of the integration of national markets? How can we justify restrictions on, or even derogations from, human rights in such an emergency situation? How can we reconcile the response to a health emergency with the preservation of a space for democratic deliberation? These are just some of the questions that will be addressed from a variety of disciplinary angles during this half-day lecture.

Program

september 17, 2021

9:00 - 9:05: Opening remarks
Philippe Sansonetti (Collège de France)

9 h 05 - 09 h 20 : Introduction
Samantha Besson (Collège de France and Université de Fribourg) and Justine Lacroix (Académie royale de Belgique and Université libre de Bruxelles)

9 h 20 - 10 h 05 : Restrictions and derogations to rights in the face of the pandemic
Benoît Frydman (Académie royale de Belgique and Université libre de Bruxelles) and Mireille Delmas Marty (Académie royale de Belgique and Collège de France) (chair: Samantha Besson)

10.05am - 10.50am: Economic and social rights in the face of the pandemic
Alain Supiot (Collège de France) and Philippe Van Parijs (Académie royale de Belgique and Université Catholique de Louvain) (chair: Justine Lacroix)

10.50am - 11.10am : Break

11 h 10 - 11 h 55 : Freedom of movement in the face of the pandemic
François Héran (Collège de France) and Sylvie Saroléa (Université Catholique de Louvain) (chair: Justine Lacroix)

11:55 - 12:40: Cross-judicial perspectives on a pandemic between the inter-American and European human rights systems
Françoise Tulkens (former judge at the European Court of Human Rights, Royal Academy of Belgium and Université Catholique de Louvain) and Mónica Pinto (University of Buenos Aires) (chair: Samantha Besson)

12.40 - 12.50 pm: Conclusions
François Ost (Académie royale de Belgique and Université Saint-Louis, Brussels)

12:50 - 13:00 : Closing remarks
Justine Lacroix (Académie royale de Belgique and Université libre de Bruxelles) and Samantha Besson (Collège de France and Université de Fribourg)

Presentation of the speakers

Samantha Besson is a jurist specializing in international and European human rights law and the philosophy of international law. She holds the International Law of Institutions chair at the Collège de France and is a part-time professor of international and European law at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

Mireille Delmas-Marty is a jurist, Emeritus Professor at the Collège de France, where she held the Chair of Comparative Legal Studies and Internationalization of Law (2003-2011), and Associate Member of the Royal Academy of Belgium. Her work focuses on the emergence of a common law based on the comparison of legal rights and logics.

Benoît Frydman is a jurist and philosopher. He is professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles, member of the Académie royale de Belgique and vice-president of the Académie européenne de théorie du droit. His work focuses on global normativities and modes of argumentation and interpretation of law.

François Héran is a sociologist and demographer. A former director of INED, he is Professor of Migrations and Societies at the Collège de France. He heads the Convergences Migrations Institute on behalf of the CNRS. His research interests include migration dynamics and migration policies.

Justine Lacroix is a political scientist and specialist in political theory. She is a professor in the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences at the Université libre de Bruxelles and a full member of the Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique.

François Ost is a jurist and philosopher. He is visiting professor emeritus at the Université Saint-Louis (Brussels) and honorary professor at the Université de Genève. A former vice-rector of the Université Saint-Louis, he is a member of the Académie royale de Belgique and founding president of the Académie européenne de théorie du droit.

Mónica Pinto is a lawyer specializing in human rights. She is Professor Emeritus at the University of Buenos Aires and a member of the Institute of International Law and the ILO's Committee of Experts. She has also served as a UN Special Rapporteur and as a judge on the administrative tribunals of the World Bank and the IDB.

Philippe Sansonetti is a microbiology researcher and infectiologist, professor emeritus at the Collège de France and the Institut Pasteur, member of the Académie des sciences and foreign member of the Royal Society, the US National Academy of Sciences and the Académie royale de médecine de Belgique.

Sylvie Sarolea is a jurist and professor of human rights, migration law and international private law at the University of Louvain, a member of the Odysseus academic network, coordinator of the Rosa Parks legal clinic and a lawyer. She works mainly on human rights and human mobility.

Alain Supiot is Professor Emeritus at the Collège de France, where he held the chair État social et mondialisation : analyse juridique des solidarités. He founded the Institut d'études avancées de Nantes in 2009. His work has focused on two complementary fields: social law and legal theory.

Françoise Tulkens is a former judge and vice-president of the European Court of Human Rights, professor emeritus at the University of Louvain and associate member of the Royal Academy of Belgium. A specialist in criminal law and human rights, she was also a member of the United Nations Advisory Committee on Human Rights in Kosovo.

Philippe Van Parijs is a philosopher and specialist in social justice. He is Professor Emeritus of the Faculty of Economic, Social and Political Sciences at the University of Louvain, where he created the Hoover Chair of Economic and Social Ethics.