UDHR and COVID-19

Introduction
Many countries in the world have implemented many measures to fight against and minimize the
transmission and impact of COVID-19, including quarantine and restrictions on movement of
individuals. WHO emphasizes that any such measures implemented as a part of public health
measure, should be in accordance with Article 3 of International Health Regulations (2003) and
it is the responsibility of the Government to take up necessary measures to curb the spread of
infectious diseases in order to promote the health and rights of individuals.

What is COVID-19?
An infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus is Coronavirus disease
(COVID-19). It is a disease caused by "novel coronavirus". It is a large family of viruses
transmitted between animals and people that cause illness ranging from the common cold to
more severe disease such as Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-COV) and Severe acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS-COV). As per the recent reports COVID-19 infection can cause
mild to severe disease and be fatal in some. This species of virus was first identified in Wuhan
city of China in December 2019.

How does it spread?

The virus is primarily spread between two people during close contact often where small droplets
produced by coughing, sneezing, or talking. The droplets usually fall to the ground or on to
surfaces rather than remaining in the air over long distances. People may also become infected
by touching a contaminated surface and then touching their face. Currently no medicine is
available to cure this epidemic disease.
Presently more than 212 countries have reported cases of COVID-19, and the World Health
Organization reported that most people have lost their life and the death rate has been continuing
to rise at an alarming rate day by day.

Human rights concern for covid-19

International Human Rights law states that the governments have an obligation to protect the
right to freedom of expression, including right to seek, receive and import information of all
kinds, regardless of frontiers. But due to this pandemic restrictions have been put forth to these
rights may not be implemented in a proper way.
Governments of different countries should primarily ensure that the information which is
provided by them about the pandemic is accurate and not a kind of rumor, and it should withhold
the principles which are upheld by human rights. No false information or misleading information
shall be transmitted to the citizens of a particular country by the corresponding government.
The information provided about covid-19 should be accessible and available in multiple
languages including regional languages and should be properly conveyed to less literate or
illiterates. This should also include sign language interpretation in media as well as all social
networks. 
All the individuals of a particular community or region shall be provided with punctual and
meaningful information which are considering the nature and level of health red, the possible
measures should be taken to mitigate risk, information or warning about the great which may
occur in future day shall be given to the residents of a particular state or region information about
necessary measures which are taken which are taken in the present days shall also be informed to
the people. The provided information should be available in all regional languages and they also
to be made aware of the present consequences. Necessary help to those who are in need shall
also be provided through the help of this media network.
International human rights law, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),
both states that it is required to put forth restrictions on the rights for reasons of public health or
National emergency which is to be lawful, proportionate and necessary. The people who are
infected by this pandemic should be kept in isolation or in Quarantine.

Protection of health workers

Right to health, Article 7 of International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(ICESCR) states that government of certain countries should create such a condition that would
assure to all medical service and medical attention in the event of sickness"
Health workers should be provided with certain health facilities like sanitation, hygiene, health
care waste management, adequate water and cleaning.
The governments of respective countries shall take measures so that the healthcare is available to
everyone and it should be accessible to everyone without any discrimination. It should be made
affordable. It should be full of medical ethics which is culturally appropriate and of standard
quality. The government should also ensure that the health worker should be provided with
proper protective equipment in order to have social protection for those who are taking care of
the infected people.

Fulfillment of right to education

Due to covid-19 out-break many countries have closed their schools and colleges in order to
protect the life of hundreds of millions of students. During this time of crisis school shall provide
children with a sense of stability and normalcy and ensure that the students are mentally strong
and do not undergo depression. School shall also provide awareness about social distancing
personal hygiene and so on, and also encourage them to cope up with the present situation.

Movement restrictions and travel bags across the world.

For around 212 countries have been affected by the pandemic, and those countries have put forth
restrictions for public movement and banned unnecessary movement of people from one place to
another. The World Health Organization had initially opposed such measures, but due to the
severe increase in the covid-19 cases across the world they have abandoned it.

Preventive care, goods and services

The right to health includes prevention, treatment and control of epidemic endemic occupational
and other diseases". Due to the widespread of this epidemic the state should ensure that proper
preventive measures are taken, goods and services are made easily accessible to the people
residing in that particular country, as well as it should ensure that goods which are necessary to
ensure prevention are made available and affordable for all persons. There are several reports
stating that there are shortages of protective goods, masks, sanitizers in many of the areas. The
people who are residing in some regions of a particular country are suffering from shortage of
necessary protective equipment. Many of the countries did not have proper resources and our
health system capacity to respond effectively to the widespread of this pandemic. the right to
health includes the obligation to provide International cooperation and assistance. The
governments of different countries should have both financial and technical capacity to deal with
any outbreak and cope up with it.

States of emergency
Under some of the exceptional circumstances in terms of a public health emergency, states might
need to exercise their emergency powers. All elements safeguard measures should be taken by
the government of different countries under International Law which must be adhered to,
including the official proclamation of the state emergency and its International notification with
the full information about the measures to be taken to control or reduce the death rate due to the
widespread of this pandemic.

Access to care for people affected

The vaccines and cures for this pandemic, are still being developed and they are unlikely to be
available in the short-term, the persons who are affected by this pandemic, and those who are
being exposed to the virus-still need access to healthcare to access tests, it necessary supportive
care to manage the consequences and symptoms of the virus. Recent studies have noted a
potential association of COVID-19 related mortality with healthcare resource availability.

Particular and disproportionate impact on certain groups.

Anyone can get COVID-19; however, certain groups mainly appear to be at a greater risk of
severe illness and death. According to the research made by WHO, older people and people with
tree-existing medical conditions (such as asthma, diabetes for heart disease) seem to be more
vulnerable to becoming severely ill to this virus.
Furthermore, some people may also face additional barriers in being able to adequately protect
themselves against this virus. For example: for people living under the poverty line will find it
much harder to access preventive measures such as mask sanitizer disinfectant sprays etc., and
for people who are homeless it is a significant challenge for not being able to be self-isolated.
Similarly, people without access to adequate water and sanitation will be more vulnerable to the
spread of COVID-19 and will find it harder to take for the steps to protect themselves by being
infected due to this pandemic. Other people who may be affected by this virus are those who do
not have any choice but to live or work in close proximity with others without accessing proper
preventive measures such as in presence or in working environments that pose health risks.
People with low income and insecure or informal employment may also suffer harder due to this
virus.

Social security and workers’ rights

Several measures have been introduced with the aim of protecting public Health, such as travel
bans, Quarantine, limitations and public gatherings etc. This adversely impacts people's right to
and at work, where labor class will be seriously affected.
COVID-19 in humanitarian situations.
Due to the widespread pandemic there are serious concerns across the war zones and Hotspots
where COVID-19 cases have been increasing vastly day by day. 

Health measures to be taken during the time of covid-19.

The strategies of health should not only address medical dimensions of the pandemic but also gender
specific consequences of human rights and the measures to be taken as a part of this health response.
Public Health goals shall be legitimated by exercising emergency powers,and it shall not only be used as
a basis to quash decent or silence the work of human rights defenders or journalists. Preventive measures
such as social distancing and self isolation such a measure shall be taken to prevent the spread of this
pandemic.
It is also very important to tighten the borders of different states, countries , districts and make travel
restrictions for limitation of freedom of movement of people from one place to another.

Business and human rights during the time of covid-19.

According to the recent reports of the World Health organisation the increase in mortality rate across the
world due to this pandemic is for about 3%. Due to this outbreak it has also been accompanied by waves
of MS information, fears regarding increased government surveillance, factory shutdown as destruction
repulse backup supply chains and fares for protection of gig economy workers. According to the survey
made by the International Labour Organisation initially estimated that over 25 million jobs could be lost
world wide due to the outbreak of this pandemic, which leads to pushing crores of people into
unemployment. In its revised reports it states that about 195 million people around the world may lose
their job due to this outbreak.

Covid-19 Government and business response.

This severe outbreak of this pandemic directly affects the business which may also lead to societal
emergency which requires effective immediate action by government and business. As per the survey
made by the World Health organisation and international chamber of commerce about 220 countries
globally affected by this pandemic.it states that all business should play a vital role in minimising the
likelihood and transmission and impact of this outbreak of the pandemic in the society.

Covid-19 outbreak: supply chain workers.

The effect of this pandemic has profoundly affected the life of many workers all around the world. Most
of the workers are in the fear of losing their jobs, it is also that threatens the long-term livelihoods and
well beings of millions, it is also threatening public health. Covid-19 worst impact has been put forth on
the working class down the supply chain-predominantly women and the primary caregivers in their
families and communities. This sector of the working class affects the economy, there is also a large part
of the hidden workforce of global production. Since these working-class already face poverty wages,
dangerous and unsafe working conditions and they also have very few social protection this outbreak
affects them severely. Even migrant workers were also in the supply chain also face unique risk, as a
result of this poor and crowded living conditions with harsh containment measures and discrimination. As
per the reports the effect of this outbreak on the supply chain workers has been increasing day by day.
The companies all across the world such as in Asia Europe North America are all in the fear of shutting
down their companies due to lack of supply of raw materials, minimise orders and also public Health
concerns.
Media in the time of Health Crisis:
Media is playing a major role in this crucial period of health crisis. The awareness about this pandemic,
information related to this virus and its spread, number of deaths occurred, number of illness, risk of
contamination,measures to be taken to prevent the spread of this pandemic and social distancing and
information about isolation and contaminant zones etc, are to be provided by the sources of media. The
media is having higher responsibility in providing accurate and proper information to the public, and also
preventing people from getting panic about this pandemic and also to cope up with the changes that has
been made by the the respective countries or States such as implementation of lockdown restrictions on
unnecessary gathering of people at one place or unnecessary movement of people from one person to
another and so on. Media should not rely upon misleading information or rumours which may lead to a
necessary panic among the people of a particular region.However, States should avoid measures
derogating from the guarantees of Article 15 ECHR that are broadly and vaguely worded, lack
foreseeability and/or are likely to lead to over criminalisation. The information which is coming from
non-official sources should be properly verified by professional journalists to avoid transfer of
misleading or inappropriate information to the public.

ACCESS TO INFORMATION, TRANSPARENCY AND CENSORSHIP 

Article 19 of the ICCPR states that it protects the freedom to seek and receive important
information and ideas of all kinds and this right can only be subject to restrictions in limited
circumstances including in the interest of public Health. The crucial part of right to health is to
access to health related information.providing education and information about the access to
information concerning main health problems related to a certain disease in a group of
community and the methods to control it and preventing it should be made aware of them. It is
considered as an obligation of comparable priority to the core obligation of right to health.

COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Outbreak: Human rights defenders & civic freedoms.

The government has expanded public Health measures amidst this global pandemic which
brought up on the freedom and threats to the life of health defenders, including those who are
engaged in business related human rights impacts. Some governments are even taking advantage
of this crisis by attacking these health defenders in many ways. They are even asphyxiating civic
freedom of these defenders and pushing them through restrictive measures. It becomes very
easier to the government to target the defenders when they are in isolation as the media do not
pay more attention to their problems in this situation of outbreak of this pandemic. In most of the
countries the rural and indegeinious defenders have lost their livelihoods and are experiencing
lockdown and in some of the cases they are even not able to raise concerns about harmful
projects as a result. Some of the factors are even trying to use this situation of pandemic to
justify the labour rights of these health defenders. Some of the Tech companies are even
violating the right of privacy of these defenders, as they join hands with the governments of
these respective States or countries which are affected by this pandemic stop or reduce the spread
of this global pandemic covid-19. Even in this crucial period of time some of the companies are
keeping their business active, and some chapters are even using this period of crisis to lobby for
lower regulations, which may lead to many problems in future.
The human right defenders, focusing on business are particularly vulnerable during this crucial
period of severe outbreak of the pandemic are affected by community leaders and members, and
members of human rights and environmental civil society organizations, protecting land,
environment, culture and livelihoods, labour rights defenders and union leaders, protecting
labour rights, anti-corruption activists that denounce corporate capture and business involvement
in bribery and corruption, and other individuals and organizations, raising human rights-related
concerns about business projects, promoting sustainable development, and experiencing attacks
and abuse of rights for doing so.
The health defenders have been affected by the effect of this disease covid-19 in the following
ways:
1. Harassment, killings, death threats, and other attacks and intimidation of Human Right
Defenders related to COVID-19, while the media and governments are paying attention to the
pandemic.

2. New types of attack and pressure on Human Right Defenders because of COVID-19, for
example, alleged violations of the curfews, increased presence of the police and armies on the
streets & loss of livelihoods of indigenous and rural land and environmental human rights
defenders.

3. Increased violations of the right to privacy & increased mass surveillance.

4. Disproportionate restrictions of freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association &

suspension of key democratic institutions, in the name of dealing with the pandemic.

5. Violations of union rights & threats of dismissals for labour rights leaders organizing for better
protection during the pandemic.

6. Increased likelihood of digital attacks as activism moves increasingly online.

7. Increased risk of attacks on Human Right Defenders after the pandemic ends as we may see an
increase in rapid investment, neglecting opposition and lacking respect for the rule of law, as
states and companies will try to recuperate their losses.

8. Impacts on defenders in detention are particularly severe because their cases will be delayed.