Question 30420 — death and death

Summary

Ms. Ramlati Ali draws the attention of the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs to the need to update a certain number of international conventions and instruments relating to the repatriation of the bodies of French people who died abroad. The pandemic linked to SARS-Cov-2 has highlighted the unsuitability of certain international instruments to deal with a pandemic involving a new virus. To date, only States not having ratified conventions on this issue, require before any repatriation a certificate of non-contagion of the remains. France, having ratified the Berlin International Agreement of February 10, 1937, the Strasbourg Agreement of October 26, 1973 and other texts, accepted the principle of a simple mortuary pass. In principle, no other documents are required. However, in the current state of scientific knowledge, it has been established that a deceased carrier of the SARS-CoV-2 virus can contaminate several people, several days after their death. Under these conditions, it seems useful to adapt these international conventions. For example, the Berlin International Agreement of February 10, 1937, provides in its article 4, the deferral of the transport of the bodies of people who died as a result of the plague, cholera, smallpox or exanthematic typhus, for at least one year. earlier after death. If the principle is good, the list must be updated or supplemented with generic terms. Likewise, article 6.2 of the Strasbourg agreement of October 26, 1973, provides that in the event of contagious disease of the body to be repatriated “the body itself will be wrapped in a shroud soaked in an antiseptic solution”. However, on the basis of decree no. 2020-352 of March 27, 2020 adopted by the Government to deal with the disease covid-19, no conservation and embalming care is provided for a carrier of the virus. In view of the above, the generalization of the suspension of the mortuary permit in the event of "epidemics, public calamities, contagious diseases", may be relevant within these instruments, as provided in particular by the Technical Cooperation Agreement between the Government of the French Republic and the Government of the Kingdom of Spain of February 20, 2017. She would therefore like to know his intentions on this issue.

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