Extraordinary Measures Research Articles

Constitutionality of Legal Regimes During the Spread of COVID-19 Coronavirus Infection

The emergence of a new coronavirus infection posed a major challenge to the global community and necessitated urgent and extraordinary measures to minimize the consequences of the pandemic. In the history of modern Russia, this was the first time a national emergency had occurred. Under such circumstances, the State needed an emergency response that also involved a regulatory mechanism. Of course, the regime of legal regulation in emergency situations has a significant difference from the everyday legal regulation. The author examines in detail the issue of constitutional-legal regulation of emergencies of this kind, analyzes and correlates with actual legal regulation. Peculiarities of organizational activity of public authorities in pandemic conditions are investigated. Particular attention is paid to human rights in conditions of COVID-19 spreading. The author comes to a conclusion that instead of application of the current and clear regulations established by the Federal Constitutional Law "About the state of emergency" from May 30, 2001 ¹ 3-FKZ which provides the introduction both on the territory of the country and in its separate places of the state of emergency with all ensuing consequences by the ruling subjects was chosen another way of legal solution, giving rise to a rapid change in the emergency legislation. The main problem, in the author's opinion, lies in the misapplication of the provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, since from the systematic and interrelated interpretation of Articles 55 and 56 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation follows that they regulate the same social relations. However, article 56, unlike article 55, has special grounds for application, so the principle of lex specialis derogate legi generali should be applied to them, that is, preference should be given to a special norm. In addition, the author proposes the adoption of a single legal act which would unify the different types of emergency situations and give a systematic and orderly legal regulation.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Physical Activity Patterns of Dental Students: A Multinational Survey.

The authorities of the world had to take extraordinary containment measures due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic spreading across the globe. The only way to stay active during the pandemic was at-home physical activity (PA). The current study evaluates how these preventative measures impacted the PA and well-being of students. This study is multicentral and was conducted in Malaysia, India, Cambodia, and Saudi Arabia; participants were recruited from four different regions to answer the online questionnaire provided via a link shared using their personal WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Twitter social media. The means of vigorous, moderate, and light PA (min/day) between the active and inactive groups were significantly different (p = 0.001, 0.007, and 0.001), respectively. In comparison with pre-COVID-19, the participants reported that it became more challenging to engage in regular exercise since the onset of social distance, associated with a lack of motivation followed by "less confidence", "less enjoyment", "less support, and fewer opportunities to engage in exercise"; moreover, it was "difficult to maintain close relationships" and "hard to voice their options on contentious matters" (p = 0.001). Public health measures affected the PA and well-being of active and inactive students; this demonstrates that health promotion strategies aimed at enhancing levels of PA in inactive students may be necessary to improve students' well-being.

The Effectiveness Of Using Restorative Justice Against Minor Corruption Crime In Achieve The Ultimum Remedium

Corruption is a habit that has been going on continuously among the people of Indonesia. Not only does it harm state finances, but it also injures the social and economic rights of the community, so corruption is classified as a great crime and requires extraordinary measures. So in the context of rescue and reform that requires a state that is free from corrupt behavior, it can be realized through developing progressive and just laws. In response to the resolution of the settlement of criminal acts, the Indonesian Attorney General's Office has issued regulation Number 15 of 2020 concerning Termination of Prosecution Based on Restorative Justice which is the settlement of criminal cases by prioritizing recovery from a crime that leads to progressive criminal law. Then how is the effectiveness of restorative justice against minor corruption crimes in realizing the ultimum remedium as criminal law, which is used as a last resort in law enforcement? As such this study aims to determine the effectiveness of the use of restorative justice against minor corruption in realizing the ultimum remedium. The type of research in this study uses library research, with the nature of descriptive research, and uses a normative juridical approach. The results of this study conclude that the effectiveness of the use of restorative justice against minor corruption crimes focuses on strengthening regulations in procedural terms while still referring to state financial losses and the presence or absence of means rea (evil intent) in realizing the prevention of minor corruption crimes to be resolved by an out-of-court process as an ultimum remedium step or a last resort in terms of law enforcement. Restorative justice is a legal effort to offer a comprehensive and effective solution for minor corruption cases.

Cognizance and awareness of COVID-19 virus amongst the non-teaching staff at health care center- A cross sectional study

COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) was declared a “pandemic” by the World Health Organization (WHO) in early March 2020. All over the world extraordinary measures are being adopted to fight the spread of the ongoing outbreak. Under such conditions, people’s knowledge to preventive measures is greatly affected by their awareness of the disease. Aim of the present study was to assess the awareness and knowledge about Covid-19 among non-treating staff in hospitals. The community-based, cross-sectional survey was conducted using a self-developed structured questionnaire and individuals were personally interviewed. A total of 82 individuals were interviewed who included the sterilization workers, cleaners and ward staff. The non-teaching staff included was working in the dental, medical and physiotherapy institute. The result interpretation showed that 95.1% of participants included in the study knew about Covid-19. Awareness was pragmatic among 89% about the precautions to be taken. While, 63.4% agreed on getting formal training from the workplace. Respondents agreed to change the methods and adopt newer techniques to bout with the Covid-19 pandemic. Since its initial outbreak in China in December 2019, the COVID-19 disease has had a cascading effect worldwide. Even though these subjects are not actively involved in patient management, there are high chances of non-clinical staff having patient contact at some point in the healthcare setting and therefore at risk of contracting and spreading the infection.

A two-ward acute care hospital outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 delta variant including a point-source outbreak associated with the use of a mobile vital signs cart and sub-optimal doffing of personal protective equipment

BackgroundWe conducted a detailed epidemiological investigation of a linked 2-ward COVID-19 Delta variant outbreak to elucidate its source, risk factors, and control measures.MethodsInvestigations included epidemiologic analysis, detailed case review serial SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR testing of patients and healthcare workers (HCWs), viral culture, environmental swabbing, HCW-unaware personal protective equipment (PPE) audits, ventilation assessments, and the use of whole genome sequencing (WGS).ResultsThis linked 2-ward outbreak resulted in 17 patient and 12 HCW cases, despite an 83% vaccination rate. In this setting suboptimal adherence and compliance to PPE protocols, suboptimal hand hygiene, multi-bedded rooms, and a contaminated vital signs cart (VSC) with potential fomite or spread via the hands of HCWs were identified as significant risk factors for nosocomial COVID-19 infection.Sudden onset of symptoms, within 72h, was observed in 79% of all Ward 2 patients and 93% of all cases (patients and HCWs) on Ward 2 occurred within one incubation period, consistent with a point source outbreak. RT-PCR assays showed low Cycle threshold (Ct) values, indicating high viral load from environmental swabs including the VSC. WGS results with ≤ 3 SNP differences between specimens were observed.ConclusionsOutbreaks on both wards settled rapidly, within 3 weeks, using a ‘back-to-basics’ approach without extraordinary measures or changes to standard PPE requirements. Strict adherence to recommended PPE, hand hygiene, education, assistance from infected cases (interviews and testing), and additional measures such as limiting movement of patients and staff temporarily were all deemed to have contributed to prompt resolution of the outbreak.

The Right to Information and Transparency in Administration during the COVID-19- Selected Issues from Poland

The pandemic has affected the functioning of society. The threat it posed prompted the administration to take various extraordinary measures to counteract virus transmission. The article will analyze selected legal regulations and actions of the administration during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poland.

Burden of Proof Reverse as A Solution to Eradicate Bribery in Criminal Acts of Corruption

The assumption that corruption is seen as an extraordinary crime (extraordinaru crime) and transnational and cross-border crimes causes that in terms of eradicating it needs to be carried out in an extraordinary manner (extra ordinary counter measure). There is a stereotype in the community regarding gratification and bribery, it is difficult to prove it, so it is necessary to apply an exception (enforcement exceptionality) through the application of reversing the burden of proof which will make it difficult for the public prosecutor to escape from the snares of the law. The research’s purpose of implementing the method of reversing the burden of proof in addition to making it easier for public prosecutors to ensnare perpetrators of gratification and bribery is to minimize the occurrence of criminal acts of corruption. It is hoped that the results of this research will be able to contribute ideas and suggestions for the development of legal science, especially those related to criminal procedural law. It is also hoped that this research will become part of the library information media that provides benefits to sharpen the quality in making further research on formal criminal law. This normative research is supported by primary data, in addition to using secondary data which is a literature study in the form of laws and regulations. There is a stipulation of the method of reversing the burden of proof, shifting the burden of proof from the public prosecutor to the defendant.

Наследие Гражданской войны во взаимоотношениях казачества и крестьянства Юга России с властью в 1920-х годах

Introduction. The relevance of the topic is to identify the practices and socio-cultural manifestations of the legacy of the Civil War in the Soviet society of the 1920s. In the South of Russia, violence persisted in the form of insurgent actions, clashes over land and the distribution of power resources, symbolic influence. The purpose of the article is to identify the forms of the legacy of the Civil War in the relations of the Cossacks and the peasantry of the South of Russia with the authorities in 1921–1926. Methods and materials. The novelty of the article is manifested in the synchronous comparative analysis of conflicts based on the materials of the Don, Kuban and Terek. Analysis and results. Attention is paid to the experience of the amnesty of White movement participants and repatriates in 1924–1925, the presence of alternative forms of civil self-organization in the village communities. The similarities and differences in the perception of the experience of the Civil War by Cossacks and “nonresident” peasants, as well as by socio-class groups of the poor, middle-class and well-off are established. It is proved that the party-state authorities initially regarded the course “Face to the village” as ensuring civil peace, but by the spring of 1926 they refused full-fledged reforms. The civil peace was also disputed within the community of farmers: both by wealthy Cossacks who dreamed of restoring the pre-revolutionary order, and by “red partisans” and demobilized Red Army soldiers who wanted a second revolution. The “military alarm” of 1927 and the extraordinary measures of grain procurement led to the return of the Southern Russian villages to mass practices of violence.

Angelo State University –Texas Tech University System

The aim of the study. This article aims to advance the development of the normative dimension of securitization as strategic crisis communication theory. Securitization is a powerful persuasive tool because it builds an argument that an existential threat is looming and extraordinary measures should be employed to counter it (Buzan et al., 1998; Vultee in Balzacq, 2010; Watson, 2012). Research methods and techniques. The theorization in this article is based on an analysis exploring a set of cases of Slovakia’s counter-pandemic measures during the first two years of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country. Results and discussion. The case study of Slovakiais informative because the instances there reflect a broader array of problems that are experienced across various global societies; for example, a failure to introduce measures that are inclusive of the marginalized people in terms of ethno-racial discrimination or digital disparities. The analysis helps to extract a set of practical recommendations that aim to craft ethically-sound securitized discourses for persuasive purposes during crises. The framework proposed by Floyd (2011; 2019) is used as the main scaffold for normative securitization and is further enhanced by the relevant ethics standards of the strategic communication field, leading to the introduced lineup of recommendations. Conclusions. The author provides recommendations for the use of securitization methods: 1) establishing the causes of securitization (determining the cause of the threat to a particular type of security; establishing a clear and transparent set of guidelines to consistently determine which frame is reasonably superior to another frame (s)); 2) taking into account the reference object of securitization (inclusion of all victims and groups; establishing a clear and transparent set of guidelines for determining the consequences of non-human entities and concepts from a regulatory point of view).Keywords:securitization, strategic crisis communication theory, normative communication theory, COVID-19 communication, pandemic communication, Slovakia

Resilient Agile Education for Lifelong Learning Post-Pandemic to Meet the United Nations Sustainability Goals

The World Health Organization officially classified COVID-19 as a pandemic in early March 2020. Extraordinary security measures, health restrictions, and social isolation left hardly any aspect of daily life untouched. One area that underwent major changes was education, whose cornerstones and foundations were challenged as schools and universities around the world were forced to close their doors to prevent the spread of the virus. In this article, the reasons resilience and agility are critical to achieving social justice, human rights, and the United Nations Sustainability goals (SDG) in the post-pandemic era are studied. It is also argued that the role of education needs to be redesigned to be resilient and agile and to ensure lifelong learning. In addition, a post-pandemic quality agenda is the focus of the article. Some of the emerging quality dimensions are empathy, satisfaction, well-being, the social dimensions of learning, and their impact at the nano, micro, meso, and macro levels. This article was prepared as part of a systematic literature review based mainly on official reports from organizations working in this field worldwide. The author selected examples from ongoing discourse and debate about the challenges in this field in addition to examples from the author’s research, experiences, and perspectives. In summary, questions regarding educational landscapes may be the same, but in the context of post-pandemic and resilient agile education for lifelong learning to meet the SDGs and the new social contract for education, the answers to the questions of why, who, when, what, and at what levels will be different. It is time not just to talk, but to act. Each of us can and must commit to the new social contract. It is time to collectively reimagine our futures to include the ecosystem of education in all learning environments, i.e., formal, non-formal, and informal, and to value resilient, agile, seamless, and rhizomatic learning in the context of lifelong learning.

State-led stigmatisation of place and the politics of the exception

Ghetto area’ has become an official categorisation in Danish housing policy. This article investigates how this stigmatising spatialisation of politics and policy has emerged through evolving storylines for particular housing estates, which gradually have come to structure political debate and become institutionalised in official policy. While political actors can draw on different storylines, it is argued that a range of storylines and associated quantifiable criteria combine to produce a generic ‘ghetto place’ in Danish politics. This scale-framing and objectification have enabled a politics of the exception, making it possible to apply extraordinary measures to particular places. This has significant effects for inhabitants in these places and the cities in which they are located, and it is proposed that, in the longer term, the politics of the exception could also become a battering ram against the collectively owned non-profit housing sector in Denmark.

Benefits of active life in student experiences during COVID-19 pandemic time.

The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to extreme global consequences. In this paper, changes in the basic segments of students' everyday life and their subjective perception are investigated. The research was conducted in Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia. The application of the mixed method was performed to provide breadth and depth of understanding of students' responses to lifestyle changes. The research was conducted in two phases: a quantitative, using an online survey (N = 1,053), from April 15th to April 28th 2020, and a qualitative, using semi-structured interviews (N = 30), from June 10th to July 27th 2020. Students showed similar responses to the measures, but it turned out that the response in that population was different when their gender and study program were taken into account. The results suggest that students of study programs that are not “health-related” were more sensitive to change in habits than students of “health-related” study programs, but generally changes are visible in sleep patterns (going to bed late and waking up 60 to 80 min earlier). At the same time, the time spent in front of screens increased, from M = 4.49 (SD = 2.72) hours to M= 8.27 (SD = 3.44) hours during Covid-19, not only due to the transition to e-learning, but also due to a “stay at home” measure. Furthermore, students were less physically active, there was a decrease in exercise by 20 min (SD = 86.52) and a decrease in walking (M = 54 min, SD = 103.62) per day, and what is positive is that they were able to maintain the recommended amount of physical activity. The research contributes to the understanding of social consequences of extraordinary measures in students as young, healthy and highly educated social actors, as well as deeper insight into everyday strategies they undertake to counter or adapt to the new situation.

Appeals to Human Rights in the Context of Managing the COVID-19 Pandemic: Analysis of Government Hours in the Lithuanian Parliament in 2020–2021

The securitization of the COVID-19 pandemic allowed governments in democratic countries to introduce extraordinary management measures that involved limiting various human rights. However, sound democratic governance always requires public debate on any policies introduced. These debates occur in multiple arenas and the parliament is among the most notable. In the context of human rights, some studies identified parliament as one of the most important agencies that promote human rights protection and oversee executive authorities (Lyer, 2019; Ncube, 2020). This article examines whether and how Lithuanian parliamentarians and government members addressed human rights during the Seimas debates when issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic were discussed. It investigates whether the Seimas could be considered an important agent contributing to the oversight of human rights in Lithuania. The article employs transcripts from the Seimas plenary debates as a data source, particularly speeches from the government question time from 2020.03 to 2021.01. The results of the qualitative thematic analysis revealed that human rights were generally not the main topic of the COVID-19 pandemic debates on the Seimas floor during government hours. It also showed that the attitudes of political parties toward specific human rights tended to shift when they switched from the opposition to the ruling majority and vice versa.

Neighbourhood stigma and place-based policies

Abstract We analyse the effects of the Dutch Act on Extraordinary Measures for Urban Problems. This allows local governments to prohibit non-employed households from entering into public housing in targeted neighbourhoods to improve social mixing. We show that the Act is largely ineffective in changing the demographic composition of neighbourhoods. At the same time, due to prominent advertising of targeted deprived neighbourhoods, a stigma may have been created. We adopt a hedonic price approach and use a boundary-discontinuity (within 100 m of neighbourhood borders) to quantify the overall effect of the policy. We thus exploit spatio-temporal differences in house prices and find a sizeable price reduction of about 3–5%. The magnitude of this effect is confirmed for two other national place-based policy programmes, adding to the external validity of these findings. Our results suggest that neighbourhood stigma is important, which implies that individuals living in deprived neighbourhoods experience dis-utility from living in a place with a low status.

Does Ireland need a constitutional right to health after the COVID-19 pandemic?

There will be many legal legacies of the COVID-19 pandemic. This commentary argues that one of them should be the constitutionalisation of the right to health in Ireland. The overriding objective of saving lives has not always been explicitly linked with fundamental rights protection in government communications or the mainstream media. When the state police power permits the adoption of extraordinary measures to protect the public’s health, why would there be a need for a constitutional right to health? This commentary argues that the existence of a constitutional right to health in Ireland would make the process of designing, implementing and explaining the necessity of restrictions in times of public health crisis a more transparent exercise. Moreover, a constitutional right to health would provide a normative and procedural framework for reviewing government decisions that restrict one aspect of the right to health (for example maternity care) to protect another (protection from infectious disease). This commentary links these considerations to the recent proposal to amend the Irish Constitution to include a right to health and addresses the concerns raised about such a process in light of the benefits of a constitutional right to health as well as the social changes wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. The commentary also evaluates the constitutional text that was proposed and highlights some of the considerations that must be taken into account when drafting a constitutional right to health.

Implementation of Follow-The-Money and Follow-The-Asset Approaches to Optimize Drug Crime Handling

one of the efforts in eradicating drug crimes is enacting high penalties to drug dealers, however, this is remained unoptimal since they can still control the drug network from inside the prison. Therefore, extraordinary measures are required to overcome drug crime. This study aims to analyze the application and optimization of the follow-the-money and follow-the-asset approaches in handling narcotics crimes. Specifically, this study applies a normative juridical approach. This research discovered that the implementation of the follow-the-money and follow-the-asset approaches have been realized only by some of people, while are remained focused on solving drug crimes itself. In fact, the application of both approaches can be utilized as a reference for law enforcement officers as one of the strategies in optimizing the eradication of drug. Additionally, to punishing drug traffickers, they can also impoverish so the perpetrators could not run the business anymore. At the investigation level, investigators can trace the flow of funds from the drug business, the forms of assets resulting from criminal actsthe storage location and on whose behalf, discover criminal accomplice who committing money laundering and then present it in the form of a case file. At the prosecution level, public prosecutors in pre prosecution stage can give instructions to investigators to develop a money laundering case from a drug crime, then in the prosecution stage, they can maximally prove it in court. Finally at the trial stage, the panel of judges can also explore further the facts of the trial related to the predicate crime (drug) and the crime of money laundering.

The impact of school closure intervention during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy: Evidence from the Milan area.

In February 2021, the spread of a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the Lombardy Region, Italy caused concerns about school-aged children as a source of contagion, leading local authorities to adopt an extraordinary school closure measure. This generated a debate about the usefulness of such an intervention in light of the trade-off between its related benefits and costs (e.g. delays in educational attainment, impact on children and families' psycho-physical well-being). This article analyses the epidemiological impact of the school closure intervention in the Milan metropolitan area. Data from the Agency for Health Protection of the Metropolitan City of Milan allowed analysing the trend of contagion in different age classes before and after the intervention, adopting an interrupted times series design, providing a quasi-experimental counterfactual scenario. Segmented Poisson regression models of daily incident cases were performed separately for the 3-11-year-old, the 12-19-year-old, and the 20+-year-old age groups, examining the change in the contagion curves after the intervention, adjusting for time-varying confounders. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox regression were used to assess the equality of survival curves in the three age groups before and after the intervention. Net of time-varying confounders, the intervention produced a daily reduction of the risk of contagion by 4% in those aged 3-11 and 12-19 (IRR = 0·96) and by 3% in those aged 20 or more (IRR = 0·97). More importantly, there were differences in the temporal order of contagion decrease between the age groups, with the epidemic curve lowering first in the school-aged children directly affected by the intervention, and only subsequently in the adult population, which presumably indirectly benefitted from the reduction of contagion among children. Though it was not possible to completely discern the effect of school closures from concurrent policy measures, a substantial decrease in the contagion curves was clearly detected after the intervention. The extent to which the slowdown of infections counterbalanced the social costs of the policy remains unclear.

Punishment Weighting for Criminal Acts of Corruption in Indonesia

Introduction: Corruption in Indonesia is categorized as an extraordinary crime where an extraordinary measure is needed to give a deterrent effect to the perpetrators.Purposes of the Research: This study aims at analyzing the various penalties contained in the corruption eradication law as a weight in an effort to reduce the number of corruption in Indonesia.Methods of the Research: This type of research is legalistic, doctrinal or normative. The approach used in normative or legalistic research include a concept approach, a statute approach, historical approach, case approach, and comparative approach. However, this study only uses legal approach since it analyzes the severity of punishment for perpetrators of criminal acts of corruption in Indonesia. The provisions used in this research are Law no. 31 of 1999 jo. Law No. 20 of 2001 concerning the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption and other related laws.Results of the Research: The punishments applied in the law range from imprisonment, additional punishment to the death penalty. In addition, the punishment applied in this provision is in the form of punishment for revocation of political rights, dismissal, and impoverishment. Therefore, the Corruption Eradication Commission does not only use the Corruption Eradication Law in applying these punishments, but also Law no.8 of 2010 concerning the Prevention and Eradication of the Crime of Money Laundering.

Storylines in public news media about mathematics education and minoritized students

Public media both reflects and shapes societal perceptions and attitudes. Teachers and others around students in mathematics classrooms have expectations for the students, projected with what appears in these media. We are most concerned about the expectations placed on students who are identified with minoritized groups—particularly students who are Indigenous or migrated to Norway. We investigate how minoritized group contexts and mathematics education appear together in Norwegian news media texts. Our analysis uses the notion of storylines to describe the expectations about minoritized groups that news media project. We found seven entangled storylines: “the majority language and culture are keys to learning and knowing mathematics,” “mathematics is language- and culture-neutral,” “minoritized groups’ mathematics achievements are linked to culture and gender,” “extraordinary measures are needed to teach students from minoritized groups mathematics,” “students from minoritized groups underachieve,” “students from minoritized groups put in extraordinary effort and time to learn mathematics,” and “minoritized mathematics students are motivated by gratitude.”

COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine geopolitics

COVID-19 investigates and reveals the intersections of public health and geopolitics at various scales and locations. The existing literature focuses on geopolitical health determinants. It has also been demonstrated how populist nationalism influences public responses to disease. COVID-19 is being portrayed in a popular geopolitical context, with expertise being called into question, conspiracies being spread, lockdowns being contested, mask-wearing and vaccination being mocked. Calls to keep "foreign" pathogens and viruses out of national territory enable extraordinary measures, xenophobic politics, and increased border and border-related surveillance.Aside from the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was in the grip of a COVID-19 vaccination crisis. COVID-19 vaccines were previously only available in limited quantities and were only available to high-income countries with bilateral agreements with vaccine pharmaceutical manufacturers. Because some countries and pharmaceutical companies prioritized bilateral agreements, the quandary over vaccine quantities and accessibility had reached critical levels of inefficiency. There has been a "moral failure," leaving the world's most vulnerable people behind. As a result, rich and poor countries must collaborate to establish priorities based on a geopolitical-epidemiological approach that first identifies countries that are most vulnerable and bear the brunt of the pandemic's burden.