Bold government action as a response to the pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented situation, with the general population at serious risk and governments forced to take urgent action.
The whole of Argentinean society immediately acknowledged the key role to be played by government in the control and management of such unique circumstances. The sanitary emergency, with a range of consequences in different countries, has exacerbated the effects of an already existing social and economic crisis in ours.
In such critical context, it is relevant to address that government is, in the boldness of its institutional setting, ultimate guarantor of the public well-being. The checks and balances between its three powers is vital in sustaining the Rule of Law and the exercise of citizenship.
Under this belief, ADC praises the prompt resumption of Congressional activity announced by both houses of the Argentinean National Congress and expresses satisfaction at the reopening of Courts in some local jurisdictions.
It is Congress who mandatorily should:
1) Decide on the convenience of maintaining the restrictions on some of the fundamental rights being curbed by the economic and sanitary emergencies.
2) Revise such limitations on fundamental rights decided by the Executive through Necessity and Urgency Decrees, within the framework of the economic and sanitary emergencies.
3) Provide legislative solutions to reestablish and/or modify the repercussions on natural and legal persons’ rights and obligations affected by the pandemic and its subsequent normalization.
4) Ensure public debate and actions of control and accountability pertaining representative democracy.
The National Judiciary, on the other hand, must furnish the means to gradually resume its activity, to which the implementation of distance modes of access could be key, where possible, in pursuit of a more effective administration of justice.
ADC stresses that only a bold interaction between the three powers can guarantee the rule of a republican system.
