Legal considerations for health emergency measures in schools and education

Overview

During the COVID-19 pandemic, countries took an unprecedented number of health emergency measures at the national and subnational levels to protect health and life. These measures were frequently subject to legal challenges, including on grounds that they violated human rights.

The COVID-19 public health emergency (2020-2023) has been estimated to have disrupted the education of more than 1.5 billion students, resulting in what the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has characterized as “the worst education crisis ever recorded”. Individuals and groups impacted by health emergency measures related to schools and education often challenged such measures in domestic courts. Various courts were then called upon to balance the right to health and life against other human rights and interests.

Based primarily on national case summaries from around the world contained in the COVID-19 Open-Access Case Law Database, this publication describes legal issues that may arise in designing and implementing public health interventions related to education and schools. It is designed to support robust and proportionate public health practice that respects human rights.