GC Human Rights Preparedness

Apart from being a public health emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic is also a global crisis of public law and human rights. Emergency measures introduced in many countries pose concerns from the perspective of constitutional and international law.

Lockdowns compounding lack of freedom. The COVID-19 pandemic has made voicing one’s views and protesting together impossible at times. But has this led to total silence? No. People across the globe have managed to express themselves, alone or together, offline and online, in new and creative ways.

Having underestimated the SARS-CoV-2 virus and politicised its control, Brazil faces an extreme public health crisis. At the heart of the handling of the pandemic by its government lies an anti-human rights rhetoric derived from far-right populist politics.

COVID-19 increased challenges to providing inclusive education for children with disabilities in Zimbabwe. Although alternative programmes have been introduced, these rely heavily on remote learning which excludes many children with disabilities, due to lack of resources, technology, support and training.

Many of us use phrases like ‘law and ethics’ and ‘law, ethics and rights’. They trip off the tongue; they seem both useful and ordinary or unexceptional. But is there cause for concern as regards their impact on ethics, law in general and human rights law in particular?

Criminalisation of sex work in Uganda has increased violence against sex workers and left them vulnerable to violation of their socio-economic rights to work, food, housing and health services during the enforcement of public health measures to counter the spread of COVID-19.

Two-way engagement and cooperation with local communities with a human rights based approach are essential tools in the response to outbreaks and transmission prevention in transnational health emergencies. The response to the 2013-2015 EVD outbreak in West Africa highlighted the importance of preparedness for communication and strong engagement with local communities when designing and implementing containment measures.