The ECHR rejects the request of 672 firefighters against the vaccination obligation in France

Published on : 08/25/2021 – 13:25Modified : 08/25/2021 – 13:29

The decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), made public Wednesday, August 25, on the vaccination obligation is a first. Seized by several hundred firefighters in France invoking the “right to life” and the “right to respect for private and family life”, “the Court considered that these requests were outside the scope of the article 39 of its regulations “which allows it to be seized under urgent procedure when the applicants are exposed to” a real risk of irreparable damage “.

The 672 firefighters asked the ECHR to “suspend the vaccination obligation” provided for by the law of August 5, 2021 relating to the management of the health crisis in France, and also to suspend “the provisions providing for the prohibition to exercise their activity. “for those among them who would have” not satisfied the vaccination obligation “as well as” the interruption of the payment of their remuneration “. The decision of the ECHR, taken by a formation of seven judges, does not however “presage its subsequent decisions on the admissibility or on the merits of the cases in question”, specifies the Court.

In a press release announcing its intention to seize the Court, described as “the main policeman of Europe”, the Sud SDIS union of firefighters insisted, at the beginning of August, on the fact that it was “not against the vaccine” but against the vaccine obligation, measure “very badly received, including by agents already vaccinated”.

This is the “first European judgment on the vaccine obligation against Covid-19”, tweeted the lawyer Nicolas Hervieu, specialist of the ECHR. The Court, which sits in Strasbourg, had however already ruled in another case, on April 8, seized by Czech parents who refused to have their children vaccinated against childhood diseases. It considered that this obligation could be “necessary in a democratic society”.

This judgment, even if it did not relate to the vaccination against Covid-19, is considered a setback for the anti-vaccine movements.

On Monday, Sud SDIS filed an unlimited national strike notice to again demand “the withdrawal” of the vaccine obligation as well as “contract suspension measures” which could be taken as of November 15.