Iran Introduces Legal Measures to Support Fight against COVID-19

Due to the outbreak of the corona virus and the need to ensure the health rights of citizens, Iran’s Vice Presidency for Legal Affairs has taken several measures.

The most important of these measure are as follows:

• Developing the legal capacities to support the medical staff both in terms of providing the protective equipment and employment contracts
• Developing the legal capacity to protect the health of citizens, especially citizens with special physical, social and legal conditions
• Developing legal capacity to protect detainees and convicts through leave, parole, and other legal means, and pursuing these matters in the judiciary and the executives branches
• Developing legal capacities and other available facilities for provinces with special status, such as northern provinces and holy and tourist cities, and proposing traffic restrictions, amount of work attendance and providing health facilities
• Developing legal protections for businesses, and classifying the contracts affected by the outbreak of the virus as well as preparing and proposing a letter to the cabinet on how to apply force majeure and hardship cases
• Developing civil and penal capacities to deal with the racketeering and related economic crimes amid the outbreak of the disease and the ways to deal with them
• Developing civil and penal capacities to deal with intentional or concomitant violations of health rules and regulations and the resulting civil and penal accountability
• Preparing a new judicial action plan and submitting a bill to the International Court of Justice regarding violation of the interim order by the United States in not lifting the sanctions affecting the prevalence of coronavirus, as well as coordinating the government’s legal efforts to prepare documents and the draft bill