Report by Matthew Scott and Elina Hammarström. Webinar coordinated by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
January 28, 2021.
This report and webinar recording reflects key insights from a 15 country study of national legal and policy measures adopted to address Covid-19, conducted by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Although some measures have clearly been necessary and proportionate, and some promising practices have been identified, others have prioritised pandemic containment in a manner that risks violations of civil and political, as well as economic, social and cultural rights. Measures that seriously curtail rights to freedom of expression, physical integrity and the prohibition on torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as well as rights to work, to food, and to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, are all reflected in legal and policy measures quickly adopted in attempts to prevent the further spread of Covid-19.
Further, notwithstanding the contemporary currency of the call under the Sustainable Development Goals to ‘leave no one behind’, measures rarely reflected an awareness of the need to address the particular situation of persons with disabilities, non-citizens, members of minority ethnic or linguistic groups, indigenous peoples, and so forth.
Although some responses reflected an awareness of the differential impact of the disease and response measures from a gender perspective, this was more the exception than the rule. Authorities around the world were plainly unprepared for the pandemic, and the measures adopted had seriously adverse consequences for the enjoyment of human rights for all, without discrimination.
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