The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant global impact. The virus has had a disparate impact on groups, with the poor and vulnerable being disproportionately affected. As governments have tried to tackle the pandemic, several policy measures have been taken which directly impact people’s human rights. The scope of these measures has been far reaching and has impacted people differently. In many cases it has exacerbated inequalities and increased certain groups’ vulnerability, and in some instances responses to the pandemic have been thinly veiled pretexts to target particular groups and isolation has often provided a context for severe human rights violations. Thus, the pandemic itself created significant health related and socio-economic impacts on different groups in society; and the policy response has in some instances also negatively impacted political and civil rights.

This panel aims to highlight the different human rights impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The panel has three objectives:

To provide an in-depth discussion of the main human rights impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the human rights impacts generated by response policies.
Discuss the interplay between the different human rights impacts.
Identify good practices and forward-looking solutions that can draw on human rights law and human rights due diligence to mitigate the human rights impacts of the virus and responses to it.

Speakers:

François Croquette (Ambassador for Human Rights, France)

Joelle Grogan (Senior Lecturer in Law, Middlesex Law School)

Paul-Joël Kamtchang (Executive Director, ADISI-Cameroun)

Moderators:

Siobhan McInerney-Lankford (Co-Chair, Human Rights Working Group, Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development)

Jan Wouters (Co-Chair, Human Rights Working Group, Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development)