Milanović said at the forum at the Faculty of Law that “in this crisis, we are not talking about human rights but about fundamental human freedoms.”
“My right to breathe, to sneeze, to walk, to move – that is my human freedom. In order to affect that deeply intimate space, it is necessary to have a decision of a representative body,” Milanović said.
In his presentation, he referred to Articles 16 and 17 of the Constitution and said that the coronavirus situation had met the conditions for declaring a state of emergency.
“Article 17… refers to a state of emergency, imminent danger of war or a natural disaster. It doesn’t matter if this virus, and a virus is a natural fact and attacks a living organism, originated as a fact of zoonosis or was released by the Chinese or escaped from the laboratory, it makes no difference. That is a serious matter. It puts lives in danger. If that doesn’t meet the conditions (for declaring a state of emergency), nothing does,” Milanović said.
He added that if the coronavirus crisis had happened during his term as prime minister, he would have let the parliament vote in the relevant decisions, which would result in greater public trust, instead of having a COVID-19 response team do it.
Everything we watched for a year and a half was surreal, he added. He praised the fact that the vaccine was produced so quickly, adding that everything else was wrong.
Ombudswoman: Citizens had numerous complaints
According to Ombudswoman Tena Šimonović Einwalter, during the pandemic citizens had questions and complaints related to passes, self-isolation, access to health care since family doctors were not available to them and their examinations were cancelled, and they also sent questions related to the right to work, that is, to work from home or work in the office.
In the past few months, the ombudswoman has been receiving questions about vaccination and in the past few weeks, about COVID passports.
She also said that the frequent changes in the anti-epidemic measures and vague recommendations had led to an increase in dissatisfaction and fear among citizens, which had further undermined trust in institutions.
The ombudswoman said that there were solutions and that her report for 2020 had been discussed in the parliament, and now she hoped that the recommendations would be implemented.
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