The Corona Passport and Human Rights

Dr. Bahaa Helmy Writes: Al-Fagr newspaper, weekly issue published on 27 May 2021:

The countries of the European Union have agreed on new rules for the procedures for travel and for receiving travellers from the various countries of the world, under the influence of the precautionary measures to protect against the “COVID-19” virus.

Every traveller to any of the countries of the European Union is required to obtain the electronic corona passport, which has been called (the green passport).

This passport includes the date and type of vaccination, and some particular information such as previous infection with the virus and recovery from it, complications and general state of health.. and other personal data of each traveller.

Alongside the unified corona passport, the agreement also included the freedom of the European countries to take whatever other measures they deem necessary to protect against the virus without being bound by the principle of a unified policy of the European Union countries, allowing each country to set the necessary preventive measures of its own as it sees fit alongside the unified electronic travel document, in order to address the disagreements existing among them; this reminds us of the deep European disagreements that arose over refugees.

The European Commission for Home Affairs announced that the electronic passport for the anti-corona vaccines received by the traveller and approved by the countries of the European Union will follow the approval of the European Medicines Agency, which has approved four vaccines against the coronavirus, namely (Pfizer/BioNTech – Moderna – AstraZeneca – Johnson & Johnson), and has not yet approved the Chinese and Russian vaccines, despite the World Health Organization’s approval of those vaccines and the contracting of more than seventy countries of the world to vaccinate their citizens with those vaccines.

Which means that the European countries refuse to receive those coming to them from the various countries of the world because they have not received the American or European vaccines specifically, and return them to the places they came from.

It seems that any country’s refusal to accept arrivals who have not received any vaccine of any kind is acceptable discrimination, but the European Union countries’ allowing certain persons who have received a particular vaccination or vaccine to enter their territory to the exclusion of others is a tool of clear and declared racial discrimination, and a violation of the Charter of the United Nations and of human rights charters, conventions and instruments, foremost among them the European Charter.

Add to this that the European Union countries place human health and its protection from disease on the list of legitimate trade from which particular Western companies profit, with no regard for any human principles or values. They are also entrenching the restriction of people’s freedom to move from one place to another in a discriminatory and racist way.

Was it not enough for the West to practise policies of depriving the poor and the sick of the earth of the vaccines that might protect humanity from perishing, at a time when they claim to protect and defend human rights.... What human rights are they talking about?

Justice and humanity require taking what is issued by the World Health Organization, whether in terms of the approved vaccines or in terms of guidance and instructions on travel and movement between countries.

The West must reconsider and change its racist approach and commit to acting in accordance with the Charter of the world organization and human rights, and to non-discrimination on grounds of religion, race, colour or any other reason, such as vaccination with one particular type of vaccine rather than other vaccines.

The question arises whether diplomats, the missions of various countries, investors and foreign tourists who have received Chinese or Russian vaccines will be prevented from entering the territory of the European countries, at a time when the latter need to achieve growth, economic recovery and a tourism boom and to open new horizons for economic development.

The policies of discrimination and racism will fall.. and the balance of power in the world will inevitably change.