The pandemic emergency represented a “stress test” for Italian “Residential Care Facilities”, where restrictions on freedom of movement, aimed at safeguarding health, were particularly intense. This was due to the deprivation of an important relational and emotional dimension crucial for the psycho-physical well-being experienced by the residents of these facilities. The article aims to analyse the legitimacy of restrictions on fundamental rights in relation to the principles of the Italian Constitution and supranational norms. The authors' thesis is that there were no restrictions on personal freedom, as hypothesised by the National Guarantor for Persons Detained or Deprived of Liberty and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, in the Italian responses to COVID-19 in Residential Care Facilities. Rather, the article asserts that it is appropriate to question the methods adopted to avoid a disproportionate sacrifice of the elderly person's right to self-determination and, at the same time, reconsider, in light of the tragic ‘lesson’ of the pandemic, some practical aspects of territorial healthcare assistance, taking into account also the insights provided by the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights.
Residential Care Facilities under the Test of the Pandemic Emergency. Values at Stake, Critical Profiles, Hints for the Future
Gabrielli, Chiara
;Losurdo, Federico
2023
Abstract
The pandemic emergency represented a “stress test” for Italian “Residential Care Facilities”, where restrictions on freedom of movement, aimed at safeguarding health, were particularly intense. This was due to the deprivation of an important relational and emotional dimension crucial for the psycho-physical well-being experienced by the residents of these facilities. The article aims to analyse the legitimacy of restrictions on fundamental rights in relation to the principles of the Italian Constitution and supranational norms. The authors' thesis is that there were no restrictions on personal freedom, as hypothesised by the National Guarantor for Persons Detained or Deprived of Liberty and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, in the Italian responses to COVID-19 in Residential Care Facilities. Rather, the article asserts that it is appropriate to question the methods adopted to avoid a disproportionate sacrifice of the elderly person's right to self-determination and, at the same time, reconsider, in light of the tragic ‘lesson’ of the pandemic, some practical aspects of territorial healthcare assistance, taking into account also the insights provided by the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
