Andalucia's Superior Court denies request for Covid passports to enter nightlife venues

ANDALUCIA’S Superior Court of Justice, the TSJA, has denied the Junta de Andalucia’s request for Covid passports to be mandatory to enter nightlife venues

The Superior Court of Justice of Andalucia (TSJA), based in Granada, has today, Friday, August 6, denied the request made on August 5 by the Junta de Andalucia, to make the Covid passports mandatory for entrance into nightlife venues in Andalucia, claiming that to apply such a measure would affect the fundamental rights, and personal privacy of individuals.

Its judgment says of the proposed measure, “insofar as it implies the need to show data related to health, considered, in accordance with European regulations, as of a sensitive nature, and with the principle of non-discrimination, insofar as it establishes a differentiated treatment for access to such premises, based on the possession or not of the aforementioned certificate”.
As stated by the court, it had to decide if the limitation of fundamental rights posed by the measures of the administrations were suitable, necessary, and proportionate, and ultimately confirmed its belief that the measure “is neither suitable, nor proportionate for the achievement of the intended purpose, that is, the protection of life, health, and physical integrity, to the extent that, far from avoiding contagion within the leisure venues, it can make them possible, which is why it cannot be ratified by this Chamber”.
Andalucia’s Superior Court continued to say that it believed the violation of fundamental rights “is not of great importance, since, on the one hand, the mere accreditation of being vaccinated or having suffered the disease does not seem to seriously condition the right to personal privacy, and on the other hand, the sacrifice of the principle of equality for the discriminatory treatment that derives from the requirement of the Covid certificate when the entire population has not had access to the vaccine, in part, or in its totality, affects a much lower percentage of people than can benefit from having the certificate”.
The court also questioned the proportionality of the requested need for a Covid passport, as a negative antigen test, considering that, “it is not an ideal measure to the required degree, since it establishes the compatibility of the requirement of the Covid certificate with that of a PCR test or antigen test”.
Continuing, the court questioned that if people who have been vaccinated, or have suffered from the disease, despite having developed immunity against the virus, can be potential transmitters of it, it is not possible to understand how the possible contagion of those who have accessed the premises will be avoided, supported by the presentation of proof for the performance of a PCR or an antigen test, which only proves that at the time of its performance they were not carriers of the active virus, but not that they had any immunisation against it.

Referring to the need for such a measure at this time, the court stated, “we do not believe that it appears justified to the degree that would be required”, explaining that “the level of demand for justification of their need must be much higher than normal, which implies that it must be conclusively proven that the greatest number of infections of the so-called fifth wave originates, precisely in the premises of nightlife, and in this particular case, neither the order, nor the reports in which it relies, offer the necessary data for this, being clearly insufficient mere probabilistic calculations”.

Summing up, the magistrates indicated that, “a period of effectiveness of the measure is not established, with which the measure is imposed indefinitely, and with a vocation of permanence, without knowing what criteria will be followed to render it ineffective. or modify it. The limitations on fundamental rights, must be specific, a requirement of which the petition under examination appears orphaned”, as reported by diariosur.es.

___________________________________________________________

Thank you for reading, and don’t forget to check The Euro Weekly News for all your up-to-date local and international news stories.