THREAD. Interesting note at the end.

In times of COVID-19 Pandemic, I’m working on a paper that argues that it is against international human rights law for a State to reject the readmission of its own nationals into its territory -even after declaring the state of emergency-.

Today I reviewed the preparatory works of the ICCPR.
Interestingly, the current text of Art. 12 was introduced by Argentina and other 4 countries.

See the following abstract:

Final report of the Third Committee, UN General Assembly
(A/4299, page 6, 3 December 1959):

(...) The clause relating to the right of the individual to enter his own country was also extensively debated. Some members were of the view that this right should not be subjected to any restrictions whatsoever.

"The general consensus was, however, that, while the right was not absolute, it should not be made subject to the same kind of restrictions as the other rights defined in paragraphs 1 and 2 of the same article".

"It was thought inconceivable, for example, that a State should prohibit one of its nationals from entering its territory for reasons of health (...)".

By the way, as we all know, in the current stage of international law, Art. 12 includes national, legal residents (e.g. refugees, stateless persons) and people who were arbitrarily deprived/denied their nationality.