An international human rights lawyer, Imrana Jalal says people can refuse the vaccination as it is their right and no person, not even the State can force you to take it but the State and the employers have the right to refuse you entry into the workplace.
Jalal has said on facebook that the employer has a duty to protect other workers.
She says you can exercise the right not to get vaccinated, which is constitutionally protected, and the State is wrong to criminalize it.
Jalal says the State cannot override that right via regulations which haven’t even been debated in Parliament. She says the taking away of a constitutionally protected right is a very serious matter and cannot be limited via regulations as this is no small matter. This also means the State cannot legislate for compulsory vaccination.
But Jalal says the right to bar entry to an unvaccinated person is also legal.
The international human rights lawyer says your choices come with consequences.
Jalal says the right to life is the most overriding human right, more important than any other right, in the hierarchy of rights, so an employer refusing entry to an unvaccinated person is standing on firm legal ground.
She says the State can say to civil servants that they cannot enter Government premises for work unless they are vaccinated.
Jalal says several different jurisdictions have ruled in favour of vaccination, for example for schools, although not COVID, but this is a precedent of sorts.
She says since the courts in other common law countries have ruled in favour for vaccination as a requirement for work or schooling then we can expect that most courts would do the same.
Jalal says the most recent one is the European Court of Human Rights, although for a different vaccine.
The ruling is the first time that the European Court of Human Rights has weighed in on the issue of compulsory vaccinations. The decision could play a role in efforts to end the coronavirus pandemic.
Parents had protested Czech rules that schoolchildren should be vaccinated to attend class
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg ruled that compulsory vaccinations would not contravene human rights law, and may be necessary in democratic societies.
Although the ruling did not deal directly with COVID-19 vaccines, experts believe it could have implications for the vaccination drive against the virus, especially for those who have so far stated a refusal to accept the jab.
Nicolas Hervieu, a legal expert specializing in the European Court of Human Rights, told AFP news agency that this judgment reinforces the possibility of a compulsory vaccination under conditions of the current COVID-19 epidemic.
