Who can not Wash their Hand in Brazil? Lessons for the Future from the Fundamental Rights due to the COVID-19 Crisis

Abstract

The COVID-19 crisis asked the intellectual community to reflect. In the judicial realm, in Brazil and the rest of the world, extraordinary measures are being adopted, measures with threats to fundamental rights. This study selected the main ideas of philosophers, political scientists, economists and media for tracing a map of the roots of the crisis and then makes evident some causal affinities between the neoliberal model we live in, the gravity of the crisis and the risks for the future of rights. What is common between the Brazilian and the rest of the world pandemic is derived from the topics of digitalization of life, the control society, the tensions between globalization and localism, fake news and the renewed call to the welfare state. The main goal of this article is to make a relation of these topics with the greater dangers towards the fundamental rights to life and health, through the rights associated with the social welfare state specially made evident due to the COVID-19 crisis. The next main goal of this article is to, furthermore, analyze the recent interventions of the Brazilian Government through decrees that should strengthen the public policies on social protection with great impact and economic policies able to obtain immediate results in the realm of public health and medium-term results in the reduction of poverty. These emergency measures are under the immediate supervision of the Brazilian judiciary, which points towards more dangers to the fundamental guarantees in public health and other matters related with the liberties that the COVID-19 pandemic brought to light. The methodology employed in this article is documentary-descriptive. It analyzes articles from journalists, newspapers and magazines editorials selected according to three criteria: i) critical thinking in defence of the fundamental rights; II) the relevance of famous authors; iii) and, most importantly, the fact of being current reflections published in the contexts of the COVID-19 crisis in Brazil and the rest of the world. The conclusions point towards substantive factors, no always evident, that impose themselves through necessary reflections in social and judicial sciences for tracking the possible legacies of this crisis in the future civilization and the risks for the fundamental rights in the broad spectrum of the health rights, dignified life, privacy, as well as the renewed role of the welfare state.