The government held a new press conference at 4 pm on Thursday about the corona situation. It happened just hours after Oslo reported a new infection record with over 1000 new cases in the last 24 hours.
At the same time reports NRK that the outbreak after the Christmas table at restaurant Louise in Oslo may turn out to be the largest registered outbreak of omicron infection in the world. There were 120 detainees present at the Christmas table. 60 of these have been diagnosed with coronary heart disease.
On Tuesday, the corona passport was finally released and can be used by the municipalities. However, several have called for additional tools to limit the infection and increase the vaccination rate. Just over 4.2 million Norwegians have now received the first dose, while 71 per cent have been fully vaccinated.
Lawyer Jon Wessel-Aas specializes in human rights. He is aware that one measure will not be relevant.
– Using physical coercion to vaccinate people in Norway against Covid, can probably be ruled out first and foremost. It will never be accepted within the framework of the Constitution and our human rights obligations. But indirectly, there are many opportunities to implement measures that will to varying degrees push vaccination, says Wessel-Aas to Dagbladet.
However, the lawyer adds that the external legal framework, in the form of the Constitution and the Convention on Human Rights, makes it possible to introduce a number of rules and restrictions for the unvaccinated. A prerequisite is nevertheless that the state can convince that the restrictions or rules will have an effect that makes it proportionate, both within the effect of the vaccine and that the restrictions are relevant and proportionate.
– It is impossible to give a black-and-white answer to what is proportionate, and each individual measure must be considered concretely, says Wessel-Aas.
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Denied unvaccinated daycare
While the corona passport is currently the last measure the municipalities have been given the opportunity to use, other measures to increase the vaccination rate have also been the subject of discussion. At the same time, the National Institute of Public Health has been clear that it is an important principle in Norway that vaccination should be voluntary, and the institute has assumed that the passport will not be used for the purpose of motivating residents to get vaccinated. Experience from other countries nevertheless shows that the indirect effect of using the passport has been that more people get vaccinated.
But there are also concrete examples from other European countries, where it has gone a long way in introducing restrictions for the unvaccinated. Wessel-Aas refers, among other things, to a case from the Czech Republic that ended with a Grand Chamber decision by the Human Rights Court. The case concerned vaccination of children, but not Covid vaccination.
– Parents could be fined if they did not let their children be vaccinated. In addition, the children were not allowed to go to kindergarten if they had not been vaccinated. This was appealed to the Human Rights Court on the basis of, among other things, a violation of privacy, says Wessel-Aas and continues:
– The Human Rights Court concluded that the intervention was acceptable, as a necessary and proportionate intervention to protect public health. Among other things, it was emphasized that these were serious, infectious diseases and that the effect of the vaccines was well documented. At the same time, it was not a question of physical coercion, but of the imposition of a fine and the refusal of a kindergarten place in the event of a vaccine refusal. The intervention was therefore proportionate.
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The big question
According to the lawyer, there are now several cases before the Human Rights Court, from health personnel who have been told that they must be vaccinated if they are to come to work. These cases have not yet been processed.
On Thursday, the government introduced a number of regional and national measures. However, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre went out and said that the government is currently not at the level that they want to introduce measures in people’s homes.
Wessel-Aas believes that the example from the Czech Republic shows that it is in principle not contrary to the human rights convention to impose certain restrictions on people’s freedoms and rights, if they refuse to be vaccinated against generally dangerous, infectious diseases without a medically acceptable reason.
– We have actually already experienced some such restrictions, as we had travel restrictions for those who did not have a valid Covid passport. The question now is whether there is a basis for introducing rules that restrict freedom of action domestically in certain areas for those who refuse to be vaccinated, the lawyer says.
