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Cited by 2Legal, Health, Environmental and COVID-19 ChallengesLegal Issues in South AfricaLegal Rights and Human Rights

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Justifications and acceptability of coercive public health measures in the COVID-19 response in South Africa: a case study of the jurisprudence of human rights cases

Abdool Karim, Safura·2025·Monash Bioethics Review
DOI 10.1007/s40592-024-00214-1
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Abstract

South Africa implemented a comprehensive response to COVID-19 comprising of several coercive public health measures. As in many countries, COVID-19 measures were subject to a number of legal challenges on the grounds that these measures infringed on individual rights and liberties. Here, courts were required to assess the extent to which these limitations were justifiable against the state's imperative to improve public health. Consequently, the acceptability of different justifications of coercive public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa may be understood and assessed through the lens of its jurisprudence. This paper seeks to outline the approach to allowing, or disallowing, coercive public health measures as adopted by the judiciary as arbiters of allowable human rights infringements and thus permitting or prohibiting the state from exercising coercive powers. Specifically, this analysis aims to identify the principles underpinning the decisions with an expressly ethical lens with a view to providing content for the operationalisation of justifications for coercive state action such as the harm principle, reciprocity, least restrictive means in relation to the promotion of public health and the limitation of individual liberty.

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Research works printed but not linked: 26

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  2. Abdool Karim, and Safura. 2023. and Bonginkosi Shozi. Is a right to health a means to protect public health? South Africa as a model for a communitarian interpretation of the right to health for the promotion of public health. The International Journal of Human Rights 27. Taylor & Francis: 925–949. · DOI
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  6. DiStefano, Michael J., Safura Abdool Karim, and Carleigh B. Krubiner. 2022. Integrating health technology assessment and the right to health: a qualitative content analysis of procedural values in South African judicial decisions. Health policy and planning 37. Oxford University Press UK: 644–654. · DOI
  7. DiStefano, Michael J., Safura Abdool Karim, and Carleigh B. Krubiner. 2023. and Karen J. Hofman. Integrating Health Technology Assessment and the Right to Health in South Africa: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Substantive Values in Landmark Judicial Decisions. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 51. Cambridge University Press: 131–149. · DOI
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Metadata

Authors
Abdool Karim, S.
ORCID
Abdool Karim, Safura
Venue
Monash Bioethics Review
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2024-11-07
Volume
43
Issue
2
Pages
333-349
ISSN
  • 1321-2753 (ISSN-L)
  • 1836-6716
DOI
10.1007/s40592-024-00214-1
OpenAlex
W4404135448
Cited by
2
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 1
FWCI
0.83
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
Locations
  • Bioethics News (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Wellcome Trust (221719)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Legal, Health, Environmental and COVID-19 Challenges
  • Social Sciences › Law › Legal Issues in South Africa
  • Social Sciences › Law › Legal Rights and Human Rights
Keywords
COVID-19 pandemic, human rights, judicial review, South Africa, harm principle, reciprocity, least restrictive means, individual liberty, state coercion, public health ethics
MeSH terms
COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Coercion, Humans, Human Rights, Public Health, South Africa, Pandemics

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