APPRAISING THE SIGNIFICANCE AND EFFECTS OF EMERGENCY SITUATIONS ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Abstract

Dating back to ages, human societies all over the world, at one time or the other are faced with one form of danger or the other. These calamities, ranging from man-made to natural occurrences, have always had devastating effects, taking great toll, in term of loss of lives, limbs and properties, on the societies. As often said, necessity is the mother of invention; given this, governments all over the world have always, in most cases, fallen back on a device, in the eventuality or imminence of disasters. That device is called state of emergency or emergency rule or state of siege. When a state of emergency is duly declared, the legal structure prior to the declaration gives way to the use of wider administrative powers than those required in time of peace. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the significance and effects a declared state of emergency would have on human rights of people within the space over which the emergency was declared. This paper adopts a doctrinal methodology, and that is, an examination of the existing legal regimes on state of emergency and how it affects the observance and protection of human rights. This paper found out that the observance and protection of human rights is the first victim of a declared state emergency. Thus, it is recommended that notwithstanding the declaration of state emergency, in appropriate case, states should ensure that human rights of citizens and others within the space of the declaration are observed and protected in line with the law.