Judicial Opinion of the Constitutional Court of Ecuador on Executive Order No.1017 of 16 March 2020

In this Judicial Opinion, the Constitutional Court undertook an in-depth analysis of the situation, including the formal and material controls imposed by Executive Decree No.1017. The Constitutional Court analysed the formal controls established in the Executive Decree, and ruled that it identified events that occurred at a national and international level based on factual and legal premises that justified the adoption of the state of emergency.

Likewise, the Executive Decree indicated that a state of emergency would govern throughout the national territory for 60 days from its signing and that it would suspend the right to freedom of movement and the right to freedom of association and assembly, thus complying with the requirements established in the Constitution. In addition, President Moreno had complied with notifying the National Assembly, the Organization of American States (OAS), the UN and the Constitutional Court of Executive Decree No.1017, a necessary requirement to approve said Decree.

Regarding material controls established, the Constitutional Court determined that the events alleged by the Decree had actually occurred, that they constituted a public calamity in the national territory, that they could not be overcome through the ordinary constitutional regime and that a declaration of a state of emergency was decreed within the temporal and spatial limits established in the Constitution.

The Constitutional Court also analysed the measures dictated by the Executive Decree, reaching the conclusion that the suspension of the right to freedom of movement, the right to freedom of association and assembly, the suspension of the in-person workday and the mobilisation of public forces and health personnel were required to stop massive waves of infections of COVID-19 and to avoid saturation of the public health system.

The Constitutional Court also approved that the Emergency Operations Committees be granted special powers regarding the suspension of the exercise of the right to freedom of movement and the right to freedom of association and assembly to confront the COVID-19 pandemic.