Open AccessThe role of prosecutors in state of emergency
Author(s) -
Tamara Manea
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
revista institutului naţional de justiţie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1857-2405
DOI - 10.52277/1857-2405.2021.1(56).08
Subject(s) - pretext , human rights , autonomy , context (archaeology) , state of emergency , political science , work (physics) , business , law , quality (philosophy) , rule of law , public relations , engineering , mechanical engineering , paleontology , philosophy , epistemology , politics , biology
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global health crisis unlike any experienced for more than a century. The need for keeping social distancing and applying lockdown measures have resulted, in many instances, in the disruption of courts’ and prosecution services’ work, delays in proceedings and have impacted on procedural time limits and the suspension or reduction of legal aid, as well as public and community services. The measures have significantly affected international cooperation. The prosecutors have faced the challenge of making sure that, in the course of their work; the measures taken under public health emergency are used so as to protect people and not as a pretext for human rights infringements and those new legal measures are applied with strict respect for human rights obligations. The objective of Opinion nr. 15 is therefore to determine how prosecution services can, without hampering their functional autonomy, fulfill their mission with the highest quality and efficiency, respecting the rule of law and human rights, in the context of emergency situations, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic and their aftermath. This Opinion mostly does address the concerns of prosecutors to work as efficiently as possible, even under the most challenging circumstances, avoiding any unlawful or undue interference in their work and maintaining the highest quality in all their activities and strict respect for the law and human rights.