Ensuring respect for fundamental rights

This crisis not only puts at risk human lives, but also the functioning of our societies and democracies. In a toolkit providing guidance to governments on the respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law during the COVID-19 crisis, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejčinović Burić, stressed the need to ensure that the measures taken remain proportionate and limited in time.

While responses to the crisis may involve, to the extent permitted by the Constitution, , to the extent permitted by the constitution, bypassing the standard division of competences between local, regional and central authorities in certain specific, limited fields, full rights of local and regional authorities shall be re-established as soon as the situation allows it.