The Bifold Cypriot Facet: Echoes of the UN Peacekeeping Mechanisms and the Politico-Legal Policies in the COVID-19 Era

Abstract

COVID-19 proffered the opportunity to promote intergroup solidarity and enhance coexistence in the dichotomised island of Cyprus. Nevertheless, devices put in place as drastic preventive measures not only incited internal and external reactions, but also resulted in further distancing the two communities. Preventive policies and mechanisms implemented during the pandemic were introduced in the form of exceptional orders’ which prioritised the protection of public health; thus, they remained in an external relationship to normative constitutional law. In an attempt to cope with the COVID-19 state, emergency measures that generated ambiguities within the exercising powers, since different parts of the Cypriot Constitution delimit the role of each government branch, were determined. Ergo, constitutional-compliance questions emerged as per the laws applied and interpreted in the aftermath of the emergency promulgation, examining whether rights under human rights law remained aligned with the rule of law and whether these means were upheld in the context of the pandemic.