WHY A LIMITING HEALTH EMERGENCY

INDIVIDUAL FREEDOMS

Number of French people still take liberties with all the prohibitions set out. We have never seen so many joggers in the streets. In the markets, there are people and the safety distances of one meter are not necessarily always respected

The government therefore presented to the Council of Ministers on Wednesday an emergency bill providing for exceptional measures to fight against the coronavirus pandemic. And in particular a state of health emergency, limiting individual freedoms.

The Senate began, Thursday, March 19, 2020 in the late afternoon, the examination of the "emergency bill to deal with the Covid-19 epidemic" which will enshrine in our law a new legal regime d exception: "state of health emergency".

The government has indeed presented Wednesday, March 18 in the Council of Ministers a bill, establishing in particular the possibility of a "state of health emergency", on the model of the state of emergency activated after the attacks of 2015.

"We found it necessary to incorporate into the law the lessons of crisis management for three months," said Prime Minister Edouard Philippe after the Council of Ministers. If he confirmed that this state of health emergency was inspired by "the law of April 3, 1955 relating to the state of emergency", according to him the comparison stops there. It is not a question of taking "individual measures restricting freedom", but "general measures to face the epidemic which would become generalized". "To underline the sanitary nature of this new regime, we have not registered the new device in the law of 1955 but in the code of public health", added Edouard Philippe. So what is this state of emergency ?

State of health emergency

Article 5 of the bill specifies that “the state of health emergency can be declared on all or part of the metropolitan territory, of the departments of overseas, of the communities of overseas governed by article 74 of the Constitution in the event of health catastrophe, in particular of epidemic involving by its nature and its gravity, the health of the population ”. "The state of health emergency is declared by decree in the Council of Ministers", indicates article 6. The decree "determines the territorial district (s) within which it comes into force. Within the limits of these districts, the zones where the state of health emergency is applied are fixed by decree taken on the report of the same minister. "

These provisions essentially reproduce those already permitted, in other words, by the public health code, and more precisely its article L3131-1. An article which specifies that "in the event of a serious health threat calling for emergency measures, in particular in the event of the threat of an epidemic, the Minister responsible for health may, by reasoned order, prescribe in the interest of public health any measure proportionate to the risks run and appropriate to the circumstances of time and place in order to prevent and limit the consequences of possible threats to the health of the population ”.

The decree adopted by the Council of Ministers establishes a state of health emergency for a period of twelve days. Beyond that, the extension of the state of emergency can only be authorized by law

Restrictions

According to Article 10, "the declaration of a state of health emergency gives the Prime Minister the power to take by decree (...) the general measures limiting the freedom to come and go, the freedom to undertake and the freedom of assembly and making it possible to requisition all goods and services necessary in order to fight against the health catastrophe ”. Article 11 indicates the powers given to the Minister of Health, namely "to prescribe by reasoned order all other general measures and individual measures to combat the disaster".

Punishments

Article 15 of the bill specifies that "violation of prohibitions or failure to fulfill obligations" will be punished with "the fine provided for fines of the fourth class" (135 euros). "Failure to comply with the requisitions mentioned in article 10 (restrictions on freedom, editor's note) is punishable by six months' imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 euros".

Safeguards

Article 9 indicates that “the National Assembly and the Senate are informed without delay of the measures taken by the Government during the state of health emergency. The National Assembly and the Senate may request any additional information in the context of the control and evaluation of these measures. "

A scientific committee may also hold the government to account. Thus, according to article 13, “in the event of declaration of a state of health emergency , a committee of scientists is immediately assembled. Its President is appointed by decree of the President of the Republic. It includes two qualified personalities respectively appointed by the President of the National Assembly and the President of the Senate and qualified personalities appointed by decree. This committee periodically publishes its opinion on the measures taken pursuant to Articles 9 to 10.

To establish this state of health emergency, the government was inspired by the law of April 3, 1955 relating to the state of emergency. "But the only measures that we will take here will make it possible to face the epidemic …… All of them will be able to be subjected to the control of the judge and the parliamentarians" ", affirmed the Prime Minister, Édouard Philippe, at the end of the Council of Ministers .

The state of health emergency is in a way an "additional turn of the screw" after the containment measures announced Monday evening by the President of the Republic.

Of course, but how can we not question a government that has failed to anticipate and forced to send healthcare personnel to the front without masks or tests ?

To govern is also to plan !!!




Abby Shelcore for DayNewsWorld