Abstract
The article argues that the establishment of centralised and aggregated databases and applications enabling mass digital surveillance, despite their public health merits in the containment of the COVID-19 pandemic, is likely to lead to the erosion of South Africa's constitutional human rights, including rights to equality, privacy, human dignity, as well as freedom of speech, association and movement, and security of the person. While derogation clauses have been invoked, thereby limiting International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights clauses and enabling the mass collection of location data only for contact tracing purposes under the Disaster Management Act, a sustained breach of these rights may pose an impending threat to the human rights framework in South Africa. Any proposed digital contact tracing technologies in their design, development and adoption must pass the firm legal muster and adhere to human rights prescripts relating to user-centric transparency and confidentiality, personal information, data privacy and protection that have recently been enacted through the latest development on Protection of Personal Information Act.
Highlights
The main objective of this article is to canvass the arguments around the human rights implications of digital COVID-19 contact tracing in South Africa
The article examines the compatibility of South Africa’s proposed tracing database and associated applications with domestic and international privacy and data protection principles, including the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA) – which very recently became effective on 1 July 2020 – and the European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
The COVID-19 outbreak has paved the way for the introduction of a number of rapid response restrictions of individual freedoms, adversely impacting carriers’ enjoyment of their human rights in countries all over the world
Summary
The main objective of this article is to canvass the arguments around the human rights implications of digital COVID-19 contact tracing in South Africa. The latter half of the article explores a robust human rights advocacy framework and formulates legal regulatory safeguards that could be implemented in addition to currently existing data privacy laws to protect citizens from extended human rights violations. Any proposed digital contact tracing frameworks in their design, development and adoption must pass the legal muster and adhere to normative human rights prescripts relating to user-centric transparency and confidentiality, data privacy and protection, public accountability, non-discrimination and equality, concern and respect for the persons most affected in the process, whether in advocacy and monitoring or service provision
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