Vaccination passports should not be allowed to restrict people’s rights, including movement. This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a press conference after talks with the Kazakh Foreign Minister on Thursday, April 8.
“Vaccine passports should not be allowed to restrict human rights, including movement, and it was these ideas that were initially discussed in the European Union. Now it somehow takes on a more reasonable shape, this discussion, but the question remains, ”Lavrov said.
According to him, within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), it is necessary to develop general rules for vaccination passports.
Such passports, as the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized, should not restrict the right to travel. According to him, they contain only one purpose – to show the state of health of the holder of this document.
On March 17, the European Commission presented a draft digital certificate of vaccination against coronavirus. According to the EC, the document will contain information on the vaccination of an EU citizen, data on his recovery after suffering COVID-19, or a negative PCR test for coronavirus.
At the end of March, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton announced that a single EU sanitary certificate would be available to Europeans by June 15th. It was reported that such a document may be asked to provide airlines.
On March 22, Lavrov already stated that the introduction of COVID-19 vaccination passports to enter a particular country could lead to the emergence of new dividing lines and violation of human rights. He stressed that the absence of such a document should not be allowed to infringe on the principle of voluntary vaccination and the rights of travelers.