The Commission for Prevention and Protection from Discrimination considers that the decision stating that rooms where there are more than 30 people can only be entered by submitting a certificate for vaccination, does not constitute discrimination, segregation and violation of the right to equality in terms of the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia, the Law for the prevention and protection from discrimination and the international legal acts.
Vaccination is a civil obligation for mass immunization and is a necessary measure to protect human health. This civil obligation is regulated by Article 39 of the Constitution, which in addition to guaranteeing the right to health care, prescribes an obligation to protect and promote their health and the health of others:
“Every citizen is guaranteed the right to health care. The citizen has the right and duty to protect and promote his own health and the health of others.”
The Constitution, in case of non-fulfillment of the prescribed civil obligations, including the obligation for promotion of one’s own health and the health of others, envisages constitutionally regulated prohibitions for movement, which are provided in Article 27 of the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia, which reads:
“Every citizen has the right to move freely on the territory of the Republic and to freely choose the place of their residence. Every citizen has the right to leave the territory of the Republic and return to the Republic. The exercise of these rights may be restricted by law, only in cases when it is necessary for the protection of the security of the Republic, the conduct of criminal proceedings or the protection of human health.”
In fact, the restriction of basic human rights and freedoms in cases when it has a justified purpose, are also provided in all relevant international legal acts that regulate human rights and freedoms. In this sense, such restrictions have a justified purpose, as long as wider immunity is not provided among the population.
The Commission for Prevention and Protection from Discrimination agrees with the position of the Agency for Personal Data Protection that the visual inspection of the certificate of immunization (certificate), without retaining personal data, does not constitute processing of personal data and goes beyond the scope of the Law for protection of personal data, and cannot constitute a violation of the right to protection of personal data.
In addition, the Commission urges the state to ensure the protection of personal data by ensuring that examinations of immunization certificates are carried out exclusively for medical purposes, in accordance with the guidelines of the Committee on Bioethics and the Committee on Personal Data Protection of the Council of Europe.
Finally, the Commission urges that all current and future measures and tools to be used to limit the spread of the infection, including those requiring examination or processing of vaccination data or negative tests, must comply with the principles of necessity, proportionality and non-discrimination.