GC Human Rights Preparedness

COVID-19 has shown that strengthening innovation and production capacities in the pharmaceutical and medical supply and device industries is essential to pandemic preparedness. In Latin America, universities are playing a key role when facing this ongoing challenge in a context of regional economic hardship.

The COVID-19 pandemic creates the necessary momentum to transform short-term solutions into permanent policies in addressing inequalities in cities. For us to be the better version of ourselves individually and collectively, the time to redesign our cities is now.

Science and human rights are intrinsically connected yet this link has not been fully integrated into COVID-19 responses. Translating normative consensus into practice will require targeted advocacy, appropriate operational guidance and strengthened UN coordination, notably in implementing science-related SDGs.

How have religious leaders and communities responded to challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, both immediate and long-term? In particular, what were their responses to measures implemented in most countries early in the pandemic that affected religious life?

There has been normative clarification of the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications. However certain aspects of the right remain poorly defined and present challenges, notably in relation to the corporate, profit-driven orientation of contemporary scientific innovation.

The Kenyan government’s recent evictions in Kariobangi, Nairobi, contravened a court order and the constitution, as well as breaching international human rights law and causing additional hardship to poverty-stricken citizens already adversely impacted by COVID-19.

The authoritative interpretation of the right to science coincided with the global descent into a pandemic. From the social fissures and injustices laid bare by the pandemic arises an opportunity to use the right to science to respond and rebuild.