Constitutional Court of Moldova (Curtea Constituțională), No. 26/2018, 30 October 2018

Compulsory vaccination and protection of children’s health. Protection against contagious diseases. 

Article 28 of the Constitution (right to private life)
Article 35 of the Constitution (right to education)
Article 16 of the Constitution (equality)
Law on State oversight of public health and of the National Immunisation Programme for 2016-2020, approved by Government Decision no. 1113/2016
 

1. In the case of compulsory vaccination he legitimate aims pursued by the challenged provisions were the protection of children’s health and public health from severe illnesses which spread more when vaccination rates were lower. 

2. A restriction on access by unvaccinated children, who had no contraindications, for a limited time pending their vaccination, is a less intrusive measure in terms of the right to respect for private life and to education and would efficiently achieve the aims pursued.

3. Refusing to vaccinate children with no contraindications to vaccine might not only entail their possible exclusion from the school, pending their vaccination, but also exposed them to the risk of contracting an illness. The damage to their health also had negative effects on other rights they were entitled to enjoy.

4. Children with contraindications to vaccine, while eligible for admission, are also exposed to the risk of contracting a communicable illness from unvaccinated children who had no contraindications. The consequences of an individual’s action on their innocent peers cannot be ignored. The rights of the individual are not exercised in an existential vacuum, but within an organised society.

(In the instant case, the admission of children to community groups and educational and recreational institutions contingent upon their systematic prophylactic vaccination)