The human duty of promoting health: The international commercial civil aviation in pandemic times and normality

ABSTRACT

The coronavirus pandemic (Sars-CoV-2) has impacted many aspects of human life and specially the international civil aviation sector. Thus, this research investigates the existence and extent of a human duty attributed to airline operators to promote health in international commercial passenger flights, regarding the prevention and containment of communicable diseases, in periods of pandemic and return to normality. Therefore, guided by a deductive approach and in the light of the International Theory of Human Duties, the article analyzed norms of Public International Law about aviation, health and sanitation;as well as judgments from different courts on the subject. Thus, by interpreting the term accident, the possibility of assigning such human duty to airlines was found, whose extension should cover the flight, boarding and disembarking of passengers. In addition, there was a brief analysis of the costs of such a duty, seeking to present alternatives for its costing in society, however, given its relevance, this topic should be analyzed in greater depth in future research. Thus, this article contributes towards, within the scope of international civil aviation, establishing paths aimed at resolving sanitary crises of an unusual magnitude, from the perspective of human duties. © 2021 Centro Universitario de Brasilia. All rights reserved.