Balancing vaccination benefits and human rights

I find it amazing that bodies that once professed to care about human rights (Council for Civil Liberties, Human Rights Commission) are almost silent on the human rights implications of vaccination mandates.

I’m not saying there isn’t a case for vaccination mandates, certainly in areas such the healthcare system. But deciding that a barista can lose their job if they don’t agree to a particular medical procedure has huge implications in terms of the Bill of Rights. The bodies that should be leading the debate are silent.

Does the right of an employer to be able to be more profitable and allow more than 100 customers in at a time, exceed the rights of an employee to not have a particular vaccination? Does the CTU have a view on this?

One can make the case for a vaccine mandate for primary schools and ECE as students there are not (yet) able to be vaccinated. But does the logic hold up for secondary schools and universities? Is the right to an education contingent on vaccination status?

The NZ Bill of Rights Act says that everyone has the right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment. Is that right contingent on an employer being able to retrospectively insist of vaccination or you lose your job?

These are massive issues and they are being rushed through without any of the bodies that claim to believe in human rights leading a debate on what the right balance is.