Covid#11 - In which our inalienable human rights become alienable

During this lockdown, we’re all realising how much we’ve taken for granted, whether it’s the hard work of the NHS, time spent with our friends and family or the simple pleasure of popping to the shop whenever we want to.

Something else many of us in the UK routinely take for granted is our human rights; ‘inalienable’ as the Universal Declaration states them to be.  Yet now, surely for the first time since that landmark document was adopted in 1948, many of the fundamental rights enshrined in it have been suspended.  In a sense, it seems we hardly noticed.

Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence

within the borders of each state.

Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own,

and to return to his country.

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion;
this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, 
either alone or in community with others and in public or private,
to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Articles 13, 18 & 20

Just a few weeks ago, it was unimaginable that society, our social order, our ways of life would be so thoroughly upended as they have; nor that these rights would be taken from us.  We assumed that our rights were so sacrosanct that we barely had to think about them; they were just part of our everyday.  In their great proclamations, it seems even the writers of the Universal Declaration did not foresee a time when any of our human rights would be alienable.  In a way, they set us up to take them for granted, and that may be what they intended.

In fact, a few years later, the wily writers of the European Convention on Human Rights did make some allowances.  The corresponding rights to those in the Universal Declaration include the provision for ‘limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of public safety, for the protection of public order, health or morals’.  Article fifteen allows derogations in a time of public emergency threatening the life of the nation.

It’s another indication of how great our emergency is that most of us have accepted the restrictions placed upon us without thinking about the rights that have been taken from us.  There are, of course, other rights that take priority now – not least, the simple right to life.  Rights also go hand-in-hand with responsibilities and in our ‘all in this together’ spirit, we recognise that our responsibility to each other’s welfare, especially that of the elderly and vulnerable and of our doctors and nurses, outweighs our individual rights.  It’s an interesting and perhaps surprising consequence of this crisis.

I’ve had darker moments though, when I’ve slipped into a more dystopian mindset.  What if this emergency lasts longer than we think?  How could it be exploited by an unsavoury leader?  If the emergency deepens and worsens, might the restrictions need tightening further?

To promote further isolation, maybe fewer professions will be considered essential so journalists, for example, could be told to stay at home.  There are other ways that governments can share their daily briefings, after all.  There goes our free press.  Too much ‘fake news’ about this virus on social media might necessitate some intervention there too, all in the interests of health and well-being, of course.  Perhaps, free access to supermarkets will eventually prove too risky and they will need to close with generous food parcels sent to every household instead – along with government-approved recipes.  Everyone should have exercise but not everyone can be trusted to have the right amount of exercise or to avoid associating with others whilst doing it.  To keep everyone safely socially distanced, every street could be allotted a specific time to exercise and a specific route, supervised by the Police.  A larger police force will probably be needed too, complete with drones to keep a closer eye on us.  It’s not realistic for teachers to indefinitely teach remotely and surely children deserve greater consistency than we can deliver from our dining rooms, bedrooms and studies.  Why not simply beam one standard lesson from a Whitehall ‘classroom’ direct into homes all across the country?  Parliament has already been suspended and needn’t rush back – certainly not until it’s 100% safe for its members to reconvene.  If necessary, elections can be postponed.

It's a nightmare vision that I wake up from and almost completely dismiss.  ‘Almost completely’ because never in my life – never in most of our lives – has anything even close to it ever been as imaginable as it is now.  It reminds me of how precious our rights are; how we will all be relieved to have them returned to us and how we will celebrate.  Maybe they are one more thing we will learn not to take for granted.