As the COVID-19 crisis takes a devastating toll on lives and livelihoods across the continent, its effects on the democratic development of African countries becomes fundamental. While much attention has been paid to the question of its consequences for democratic and electoral processes, its impact on constitutionalism and the rule of law in these states has received relatively less attention. It is against this backdrop, that International IDEA is organizing, in partnership with the Department for Political Affairs (DPA) of the African Union Commission (AUC), a two and half (2.5) hour webinar around the theme: “The Impact of the COVID-19 Crisis on Constitutionalism and the Rule of Law in North Africa Countries.”

In North Africa Countries (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia), as elsewhere across the continent, the pandemic has been relatively slow to materialize, and governments have had the advantage of a time-lag in the spread of the virus. They have adopted some emergency measures to respond to the COVID-19 crisis—some harder than others. These measures varied from school closures to isolation and quarantine policies, health screenings in airports and border crossings, international flight suspensions, domestic travel restrictions, limits on public gatherings, public service closure, military deployment, among others. Implementation of these measures has been affected by the sociopolitical context of each country. While the numbers of infections and deaths continue to rise, North Africa countries have kept state of emergency regulations but have begun a gradual lifting of restrictions. The question is therefore to know how Constitutionalism and Rule of Law can be preserved in the context of a long term COVID-19 pandemic in the Region?