During a pandemic, a state may restrict freedom of movement to limit the possibility of bringing a disease or new strains of a disease into their territory.
Measures such as lockdowns, curfews, and travel bans may also restrict freedom of movement. In some cases, states may require people to fill out a document in order to justify leaving their house. Such restrictions may be necessary to limit contact between people or to prevent spreading new strains of diseases to larger regions. However, they must be applied in a way that allows people to meet their basic needs, such as getting food, medicines, medical assistance, or even exercise.
Such measures also must be carefully assessed in terms of unequal treatment and how a lockdown and similar measures affect people with different income levels and socio-economic situations.
example An extended lockdown, where people are confined to their homes and allowed to leave them only briefly for a specific reason, such as grocery shopping, may have a much more negative effect on people who live in smaller flats, than those with high incomes living in large houses with inner yards.
In Lithuania, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the government put restrictions in place requiring people, even Lithuanian nationals, wishing to enter Lithuania by an international carrier to show a negative test for the virus. Such a requirement may normally violate a person’s right to return to their own state, which is a right protected by Article 32 of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania. Nevertheless, legal researchers in Lithuania states that this was not a restriction on human rights as it is understood by international law. This restriction maintained an appropriate balance between the public interest and the rights of individuals in accordance with Article 2(3) of the Fourth Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights requirements, as there were exceptions left and also the possibility to obtain a leave permit in individual cases.