Region: Europe
Year: 2001
Court: Conseil d’Etat (State Council)
Health Topics: Medicines
Human Rights: Right to bodily integrity, Right to health
Tags: Vaccination, Vaccines
Certain provisions of the Code of Public Health make mandatory a number of vaccinations or provide opportunities to administrative authorities to make certain vaccinations mandatory. These provisions were challenged in the Conseil d’Etat but a number of interested parties.
A number of other technical issues relating to authority to make laws and the penalties imposed for non-compliance with the laws regarding vaccinations were raised but are not covered in this summary as they do not relate to the right to health.
1. Do the provisions allowing mandatory vaccination violate the principles of inviolability and integrity of the human body?
No. The principle of inviolaibility and integrity of the human body is limited where laws are created for the purpose of protecting health. These provisions were established for the purpose of protecting health as enshrined in the Preamble to the Constitution of 1946. The requirements for mandatory vaccination are proportionate to the objective of protecting health and therefore they do not infringe the principle of safeguarding the dignity of the human person. For the same reasons they do not infringe the principle of freedom of consciousness.