Covid-19 and Human Rights

 Human rights are key in shaping the pandemic response, both for the public health emergency and the  broader impact on people’s lives and livelihoods. Human rights put people centre-stage. Responses  that are shaped by and respect human rights result in better outcomes in beating the pandemic,  ensuring healthcare for everyone and preserving human dignity. But they also focus our attention  on who is suffering most, why, and what can be done about it. They prepare the ground now for  emerging from this crisis with more equitable and sustainable societies, development and peace. 

Whom is COVID-19  harming, how and why? 

  Many of the people most severely impacted by  the crisis are those who already face enormous  challenges in a daily struggle to survive. For  more than 2.2 billion people in the world, washing their hands regularly is not an option because  they have inadequate access to water. For 1.8 billion who are homeless or have inadequate, overcrowded housing, physical distancing is a pipe  dream. Poverty itself is an enormous risk factor. Yet the poor and the vulnerable in our societies are not only at greater risk from the  virus itself, they are most severely affected  by the negative impacts of measures to  control it. Those employed in the informal  sector, disproportionately women, have little recourse to social protection or unemployment assistance, for example. Governments are rightly focused on controlling  the spread of the virus and saving lives – the  rates of infection, hospitalization and deaths  are shocking. The measures required, on the  advice of public health experts, to save lives  are proving effective. At the same time, they  are affecting people’s jobs, livelihoods and  standards of living, communities and families.