Attorney General (AG) Anil Nandall SC has said that the COVID-19 measures implemented by Government which are aimed at increasing vaccination among citizens “can withstand constitutional and legal scrutiny from any court.”
He said that the measures are authorized under the Public Health Ordinance, recognized by the Constitution and recommended by both the World Health Organization (WHO) and Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
Nandlall was at the time addressing the APNU+AFC Opposition-supported rejection by some sections of society to the newest measures which now prohibit unvaccinated persons from entering public buildings or privately-owned buildings which the public has lawful access; unless evidence of a recent negative PCR test is shown or an appointment is alternatively made.
The measures have sparked protest action by some who have labelled the PPP/C government-imposed measures as being mandatory and stripping them of their individual right to choose whether to be vaccinated or not.
Slogans such as “my body, my choice” were among the popular chants in protest to the measures which also oust the unvaccinated from entering commercial banks, malls, supermarkets, schools, hospitals and even places of worship.
Nandlall has accused the main Opposition of being part of an anti-vaccine campaign. He underscored their calls for “shutting down of businesses and the country,” but said that their efforts are futile.
On his recent “Issues in the News” Facebook broadcast, Nandlall who is also Minister of Legal Affairs said that while the Constitution guarantees rights and freedoms to the citizenry, “it also limits and restricts those rights and freedoms if there is a pandemic…if there is a public health outbreak…if there is a pandemic of infectious disease.”
The AG said that having been confronted by this very state-of-affairs, the Constitution itself mandates “that when the public is under such threat, the President and the State is authorized to regulate and curtail those freedoms to restrict those freedoms in the public interest and in the public’s welfare.”
“Well that is all that we (Government) have done in implementing those measures,” Nandlall declared; while expressing satisfaction over the legal challenge which has been mounted against the measures by several union bodies which represent workers in the public service.
The government has pointed to Article 139 1(g) which says that no person shall be deprived of his or her personal liberty save as may be authorized by law in cases including for the purpose of preventing the spread of an infectious or contagious disease.
Article 148 (3) (b) dealing with protection of the freedom of movement has also been cited as it enables restrictions in relation to public health.
Expressing confidence that the Government will be vindicated, Nandlall referenced rulings handed down last year after the pandemic hit, in which the local Courts threw out an action brought by a citizen returning to Guyana and having to quarantine at a government facility for a two–week period.
The applicant in that matter had argued that he was being falsely imprisoned, subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment and that his constitutional right to freedom of movement and liberty were being contravened.
The Full Court would, however, later affirm the ruling of the High Court that his rights had not been violated and that the COVID measures implemented at that time were necessary to ensure the safety of the wider public in a pandemic.
Nandlall contends that “the COVID guidelines at that time…are very similar to what they are now.”
Nandlall said that given the surging death rate among the unvaccinated as the COVID-19 virus continues to wreak havoc across Guyana, “I don’t know what more proof persons want before they take the vaccines,” even as he holds to his position that Government continues to respond “appropriately with measures that are required that are necessary to meet the exigencies that are being created by this virus as it unleashes its vicious and fatal tentacles.”
“They are dying without the vaccines,” he stressed.
Nandlall then made the point that no right or freedom is absolute. He said, “your freedom is dependent upon my freedom…there must be peaceful co-existence…there must be a balancing of competing interests between different persons’ freedom in a society.”
The AG said that this is how a civilized society is organized and that when such a balance cannot be struck, the result is a descent into anarchy.
He said that the measures implemented by Guyana are “no different from the measures that are being implemented across the world—including the Caribbean Region. The position that Guyana has taken, is consistent with the positions taken across the globe and the Caribbean.”
He then went on to add that the measures adopted by Guyana, are similar to those that are promulgated and recommended by organizations such as the WHO and PAHO and that Guyana is doing nothing different from the rest of the world.
Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony has previously said the decision to extend the COVID-19 vaccine requirements for public access to privately-owned facilities was driven by the need to ensure public safety.
“So, it is one way of ensuring that the environments in the public are much safer because if you have vaccinated people then the chances are we’ll have a much safer environment when we visit those places,” Anthony had said during one of his daily COVID-19 updates, after the new measures were gazetted.
“And it’s not only for the people who are accessing the services, it’s also for the people who are working there. Because we have to create the safe environment if we are going to push back against the COVID-19 disease,” he had said.
