COVID-19: Israel’s legal duty & vulnerable groups
Israeli security forces take a Palestinian minor into custody in the West Bank, 20 December 2017
Angelina Nicolaou and Elena Christaki-Hedrick write in a Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights blog:
While many parts of the world transition to mandatory lockdown, Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory face uncertainty about how they will be protected from the spread of COVID-19. This blog will focus on the circumstances of three particularly vulnerable population groups: i) the population of Gaza, ii) child and adult detainees in Israeli prisons and detention facilities, and iii) families and individuals displaced by home demolitions.
On 19 March 2020, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a statement on Israel’s legal duty, as the occupying power, to ensure that Palestinians are protected as far as possible from the spread of COVID-19. UN Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk asserted, “The legal duty, anchored in Article 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, requires that Israel, the occupying power, must ensure that all the necessary preventive means available to it are utilised to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics.” We note that an equivalent obligation applies to all duty-bearers in the occupied Palestinian territory, including the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, under international human rights law (see further below).
The speed and effectiveness of measures taken by responsible authorities, in accordance with their international legal responsibilities, to combat the spread of COVID-19 will have paramount importance for all Palestinians living in the occupied Palestinian territory. With this in mind, let’s briefly examine the circumstances of the three aforementioned vulnerable population groups.