MEDICO-LEGAL PROBLEMS ON THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE AND OBJECT COVID-19 VACCINATION: BALANCING PUBLIC HEALTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION

Abstract

The extraordinary characteristic of the COVID-19 pandemic required governmental interference and integrated response through imposing legal regulations and policies that might derogate or limit individual’s rights. A similar phenomenon occurs in Indonesia following the issuance of Presidential Regulation No. 14 of 2021 on the Amendments to Presidential Regulation of 2020 concerning Vaccine Procurement and Vaccination Implementation during the COVID-19 Pandemic, which vested the Indonesian Government a prerogative right to determine which group of the community obliged to receive the vaccination to achieve herd immunity. This legal product is considered to be ineffective and arbitrary through the lens of human rights protection as every human being is provided the right to choose whether to accept or to reject COVID-19 vaccination irrespective of the pressing public health exigencies. Hence, this study is conducted to research the legality of the Indonesian Government, and other ASEAN Countries Governments, responses to prevent and repress the COVID-19 pandemic through compulsory vaccination. This study is a medico-legal research using qualitative analysis and conceptual, comparative, and case-approach basis to obtain the comprehensive viewpoint between the legitimacy of the Government’s interest, the public prejudice, communal public health, and human rights law protection. The research shows that Indonesian Government action can be justified through the international human rights law perspective that permits the derogation and limitation of individual’s interest to achieve public orde, which here, is contextualized by the State’s pressing interest to flatten the COVID-19 pandemic curves as mandated by the international public health communities.