A Memo to the Ministry of Health on Protecting the Privacy of Deceased Persons with the Coronavirus
  • A Memo to the Ministry of Health on Protecting the  Privacy of Deceased Persons with the Coronavirus

Date 2020-11-16

LOCATION West Bank

Category West Bank / Core Program / position paper

A Memo to the Ministry of Health on Protecting the Privacy of Deceased Persons with the Coronavirus

 

Her Excellency the Minister of Health, 

Dr. Mai AlKaila

 

Subject: the confidentiality of personal health data of the deceased Coronavirus Victims

 

MUSAWA- The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession extends its warmest greetings to you, while the Center appreciates the ministry’s efforts to combat the Coronavirus, it draws your attention to the fact that some governorates (Qalqilia, Jenin, and Salfit) leak the medical history of the deceased during the announcement of the Coronavirus casualties, which constitutes a serious violation of the existing legislation, not to mention its serious implications for public opinion and civil peace, especially for families of the deceased by exposing them to stigmatization, discrimination, and bullying, which promotes the constitutionally prohibited discrimination and leads many to refrain from testing for the Coronavirus.

 

The publication of the medical history of the deceased is a clear violation of personal privacy in general and the privacy of the patient in particular since medical data is confidential and no less important than human dignity, the inviolability of the home, and the confidentiality of communications, financial information, and other aspects of privacy that are duly protected by the provisions of the Basic Law, several national laws, and international covenants and conventions to which the State of Palestine is bound, particularly the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Bill of Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibits any legal or civil entity, including governorates, from violating or disclosing such data, under penalty of law.

 

 In this context, we refer to the Public Health Act No. 20 of 2004, which obliged the health institutions to respect the privacy and dignity of the patients in the fourth paragraph of article 60, whereas the fifth paragraph of the same article provided for the patient’s right to file complaints against the health institution, where he/she is receiving treatment, or one of its employees, and in article 81, the law provided for anyone who violates any of the provisions of this law shall receive a penalty of imprisonment for a term no greater than one year, and a fine not exceeding two thousand dinars or one of these two penalties.

 

Moreover, we recall the clear and decisive provisions of article 32 of the Basic Law, which provides that any violation of any personal freedom, of the sanctity of the private life of human beings, or of any of the rights or liberties that have been guaranteed by law or by this Basic Law shall be considered a crime. Criminal and civil cases resulting from such violations may not be subject to any statute of limitations. The National Authority shall guarantee a fair remedy to those who suffer from such damage.

 

Furthermore, we refer to the decree-law no 31 of 2018 on Medical & Health Protection, which, in the fifth paragraph of its tenth article, provides that “Anyone who practices medicine or an assisting health profession is prohibited from disclosing the secrets of the recipient of the medical services, except for the competent authorities and in cases determined by law. This was confirmed by Your Excellency's Circular No. 33 disseminated on 22/06/2020, which prohibits all governmental and non-governmental departments, municipalities, and the media from announcing the Coronavirus cases, and requires them to adopt the reports of the Ministry of Health, as confirmed by the official spokesman of your honorable ministry, Dr. Kamal Al-Shakha, during his speech on 5/7/2020, during which, he stressed that disseminating any information related to the infected persons or the contact constitutes a violation of their privacy, that anyone who publishes such information exposes himself to legal accountability, and that the Ministry of Health does not publish the names and ID numbers of the infected or the contacts to preserve their privacy, instead, the ministry confines to publishing the numbers of the causalities and infections in each governorate. 

 

Accordingly, and as detailed above, sharing the deceased private health data falls under the umbrella of the crime of undermining the constitutional rights and the human dignity of the deceased, which requires immediate legal action to stop, prevent and prohibit the publication of any data related to the health status of the deceased, and to take administrative and legal accountability measures against anyone who violates the existing legislation and dares to publish any of the health information of the deceased, in particular those related to the diseases they were suffering from, their names, or the causes of their deaths and if they died due to the Coronavirus, and to notify all official agencies, including governorates, to confine to mentioning the number of injuries and deaths as followed worldwide and as required by the existing legislation. Therefore, we ask your Excellency to immediately notify all governorates, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and the media to abide by the requirements of the law with respect for the private life of patients, to avoid announcing the personal data of those who died due to the Coronavirus, and to adopt the reports of the Ministry of Health, as the competent authority in this regard.   

 

Issued on 16/11/2020

 

With All Due Respect

 

MUSAWA

Ms. Ahlam Tarayra, Executive Director 

 

 

 Attachments on the violations that require accountability in conformity with the law 

 

 

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