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563Border
Closures: A Pandemic of Symbolic Acts in the Time of COVID-19
this approach either before or simultaneous to total border closures,
the latter of which can later be lifted if the quarantining of all incoming
travellers proves effective and feasible. Assuming so, this approach
represents a reasonably available alternative that would achieve the
appropriate level of health protection in a less restrictive and non-dis-
criminatory manner—meaning that Article 43.1 of the International
Health Regulations would legally require national governments to
make use of this alternative instead of total border closures, if it is
feasible to do so.
Border Closures Are Symbolic Acts to Avoid Blame
If targeted border closures are ineffective and illegal, and if total bor-
der closures are only theoretically effective and probably illegal, then
why have at least 142 countries implemented one of these border con-
trol measures?
The answer lies in the realities of politics. Even if governments
know the science and international law of border closures, they will
still feel compelled to enact them because of intense pressure from
powerful domestic political actors who might otherwise blame them
for not taking every possible action. Such criticism could come from
opposition parties, sub-national governments, civil society organiza-
tions, academics, and/or journalists, depending on the political insti-
tutions of a society and how they give voice to and structure criticism.
For example, political pressure to enact border closures may be par-
ticularly intense in those countries with federal structures, wherein
sub-national governments may look for opportunities to assign blame
to the national government, as it controls national borders. The same
logic is true for countries with multi-party systems and freedom of
the press. The ruling party may feel pressure to implement border
closures to deny their political adversaries and the media the opportu-
nity to criticize them, particularly during an election year. Even more
pressure would be faced by national leaders with all three political
institutions—a federal structure, multi-party system, and press free-
doms—like Canada, which was indeed one of the earlier countries to
enact a total border closure, on March 18, 2020 (see Figure F4-1).17
17. Justin Trudeau, News Release, “Prime Minister Announces New Actions
Under Canada’s COVID-19 Response” (March 16 2020), online: Justin Trudeau,
Prime Minister of Canada <https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2020/03/16/
prime-minister-announces-new-actions-under-canadas-covid-19-response>.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Titel
- VULNERABLE
- Untertitel
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Autoren
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Verlag
- Ottawa Press
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Abmessungen
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Seiten
- 648
- Kategorien
- Coronavirus
- International