The COVID-19 pandemic has had a tremendous impact on the enjoyment of human rights and has accentuated structural inequalities and vulnerabilities in terms of access to education, health, housing, employment, and information among others. The response to the pandemic should therefore not only focus on halting the spread of the virus and on vaccinating the population. Recovery should also tackle the underlying factors of marginalization which, because they have been so negatively impacted by the pandemic, have worsened the situation of significant parts of society.

Parliaments play a key role in helping ensure that COVID-19 recovery includes the strengthening of state institutions and policies so that they truly serve everyone, starting with those most in need, and are fully grounded in existing human rights standards.

Against the backdrop of the global mobilization to defeat the pandemic and the different constraints that may exist in this regard at the national level, the IPU-OHCHR workshop aims at:

Sharing best national practices in terms of legislation and other parliamentary activities to promote human rights while fighting the pandemic.
Identifying appropriate measures, drawn from international human rights principles, to fight the pandemic.
Exploring robust human rights-based strategies for post-COVID-19 recovery, including avenues to strengthen the contribution of parliaments to the work of the UN Human Rights Council through the implementations of its UPR recommendations.