The year 2020 was a disastrous year to human rights all over the world. While efforts and commitments has been made over the years to uphold human rights, the standard still seems to be unstable and slow in development. The COVID 19 pandemic has accelerated the errosion of the constitutional pillars on which the protection of human rights ultimately depends. The pandemic not only affected the human rights but the lives of humans. In addition, the pandemic illuminated certain puzzling circumstances ingrained in the system cutting across the health sector to the economy of the country itself. It became far more than a public health emergency but an economic, social and human crisis. Section 305(3)(e) of the constitution empowers the president to proclaim a state of emergency where there is an occurrence or eminent danger or where there is an occurrence of any disaster or natural calamity, affecting a community or section of a community in the federation. The pandemic no doubt is an eminent danger, threat and catastrophe to the federation thus necessitating such proclamation and laws to regulate the dissemination and propagation of the deadly virus. In effect laws such as the Quarantine Act and the COVID 19 regulations were established, the enforcement of which was initially accepted by the public but subsequently gave rise to human rights abuses in certain parts of the federation. The implication of the pandemic and the enforcement of it’s attendant laws shall thus be examined in the light of certain fundamental right guaranteed by chapter 4 of the 1999 constitution of Nigeria.

Affected Rights1	Affected Rights2
Right to life	Right to dignity
Right to personal liberty	Right to freedom movement

RIGHT TO LIFE

Section 33(1) of the constitution essentially provides that,every person has a right to life, and no human being shall be deprived of his life, except the court finds the person guilty of any crime.

Article 4 of the African Charter also guarantees the right to life in the following terms.

RIGHT TO DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

The right to dignity of human person is also properly recognized in the constitution as well other international instruments on human rights. Section 34(1) of the 1999 constitution (as amended) provides for the dignity of human persons. It therefore stipulates that,every individual is entitled to be respected and no person shall be subjected inhuman treatment. This right to dignity also implies that no person shall be compelled to perform forced and compulsory labour. The African Charter guarantees the same right in Article 5 as follows: “Every individual shall have the right to respect of the dignity inherent in a human being and to the recognition of his legal status. This implies that,any kind of degradation is prohibited and no human being shall be tortured, subjected to slavery.

Article 4 and 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was also succinct where it provided that no one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms and no one shall be subject to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This is also in line with Article 7 and 8 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The Court defined what torture means which include mental harassment and physical brutalization, whilst inhuman treatment implies any act without feeling for the suffering of others.
Likewise the infringement of the right to life by law enforcement agencies, battery, assault and unprovoked inhuman treatment from the police and the Nigerian military became the order of the day. People were publicly flogged and made to serve severe punishments on several occasions.

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