Vaccination pass: the reserves of the Defender of Rights

The establishment of a vaccination pass for minors does not go without saying for the Defender of Rights, at least not necessarily as the government intends. In an opinion published Tuesday evening, Claire Hédon is worried about the “risks of abuse and arbitrariness” contained in the bill on this health “pass” and against which she considers it necessary to provide guarantees to protect citizens.

According to her, this text accentuates “a little more the progressive narrowing of freedoms” and provides for a “disguised vaccination obligation”, while “the question of the necessity and proportionality of the vaccination pass arises”.

“Contrary to the best interests of the child”

If this pass “protects in a very significant way against the serious forms of the disease, its effectiveness against the contagiousness of the vaccinated but infected people seems on the other hand more reduced”, observes the Defender of the rights among the points of alert formulated at the address in Parliament where the debate on this bill has become chaotic.

Above all, this pass is “contrary to the best interests of the child”, according to this opinion which calls for the exclusion of minors from 12 to 18 years of age from being obliged to produce them. The deputies have just raised from 12 to 16 years the age from which this vaccination pass will be required.

As the severe forms of Covid rarely affect them, it is not the children who put the pressure on the hospital system. As far as they are concerned, the pass, which aims to lower this pressure, is therefore not justified, argues Claire Hédon.

A “form of police power”

The health pass in companies – a track finally abandoned by the government – would also have posed a problem. It would suppose a right of control which comes under a “form of police power”, about which the Defender of Rights reiterates her “concerns”, in particular on the “discriminatory risks” that this can entail.

According to her, “such a device entrusted to the free will of persons not trained for this purpose cannot be effective”. For Claire Hédon, “this control should be the responsibility of the public authorities, in particular the security forces”.