ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that the extended restrictions of some fundamental rights during states of emergency cause intense public discussion about the competence of the governments to execute such restrictions, the consequences stemming from rights violations and the avenues to gain redress. In other cases, however, such discussion was missing in the public discourse, particularly about human rights belonging to the second ‘generation’. This chapter argues that states of emergency might widen an already existing gap in how first- and second-generation rights are perceived, resulting in reduced scrutiny of governmental decisions. It focuses on the right to education in Slovakia, a country which particularly underperforms in education standards, with implications for the respect towards education as a fundamental right. The analysis of selected Slovak institutional and policy documents issued before and after the outbreak of COVID-19 as a critical juncture for shaping rights restrictions during emergencies demonstrates the lack of determination to protect second-generation rights by default. Yet, the framing of education in key segments of the official discourse during the first months of the pandemic shows how the gap between the right to education and first-generation rights has been exacerbated in the wake of an emergency.
