PHM-Exch> A human rights-based approach to the pandemic

[Claudio Schuftan]

As you know, the pandemic and the response of state, corporate and other
non-state actors have the potential to exacerbate precisely the kind of
intolerable inequalities at the heart of many struggles for social justice.
Harms can be intensely magnified by stigmatization, racist abuse,
xenophobia, scapegoating, draconian restrictions, fearmongering, ignorance,
unfair burden-shifting and lack of appropriate care for those most
affected. The pandemic will further expose unacceptable holes in universal
access to healthcare; workers’ rights to safe and equitable conditions,
paid leave and job security; equitable gender distribution and public
provision of care; access to vital resources and public services, including
education; protections against dispossession, including evictions and
foreclosures amid quarantines and economic crisis; access to meaningful
participation in policy making; transparent governance; and more.

A human rights-based approach to the pandemic can draw on fundamental
principles of ESCR, which demand timely, deliberate, concrete, and targeted
official responses that prioritize the needs of those in disadvantaged
groups and grave situations, while abiding by guarantees of equality and
non-arbitrariness, and upholding rights to information, participation,
healthcare and the underlying determinants of health, and security in the
event of unemployment or sickness, among other rights.

Addressing this pandemic through a human rights-based approach involves
demanding states put people over profit, revisit priorities in public
expenditure and resource allocation, and counter dangerous austerity
measures that have jeopardized access to adequate standards of living,
welfare rights, and social safety nets. Some governments are taking
measures to prioritize the common good, even at the risk of limiting
economic growth, and are doing so by appealing to a sense of collective
responsibility. This could provide invaluable precedents for longstanding
struggles to realize ESCR.

Indeed, many of you around the world have long been operating in conflict
affected areas, fighting impoverishment amid abundance, defending the
environment and working toward climate justice, often while facing threats
from corporations and state officials. These too often neglected crises
also need urgent and effective responses, a fact that will only be
compounded by the pandemic. In the face of global challenges, we emphasize
the need to reclaim human rights, to connect struggles across regions, to
center social movements and grassroots groups emerging from affected and
resisting communities, and to articulate alternatives to the current
dominant socioeconomic model.

Ensuring human rights for all is imperative in times of crisis and
reinforces public health.

ESCR-Net - International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Red-DESC / Réseau-DESC / الشبكة العالمية  للحقوق
الاقتصاديةوالاجتماعيةوالثقافية
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