COVID-19 and Human Rights

Morten Kjaerum is Director of Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Lund, Sweden and Adjunct Professor at the University of Aalborg, Denmark.Martha F. Davis is University Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University School of Law, USA.Amanda Lyons is Executive Director of the Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota Law School, USA.

• Part 1: Human Rights During Health Crises 1. Human Rights against Human Arbitrariness: Pandemics in a human rights historical perspective 2. Human-rights-based versus Populist Responses to the Pandemic 3. Human Rights and Health in Times of Pandemics: Necessity and proportionality 4. COVID-19 Risk Communication: The right to information and participation Part 2: Vulnerability and Inequality 5. The Human (Rights) Costs of Inequality: Snapshots from a pandemic 6. Racial Justice to the Forefront: Do Black Lives Matter in international law? 7. COVID-19 and Violence against Women: Unprecedented impacts and suggestions for mitigation 8. COVID-19 and Disability: A war of two paradigms 9. Life and Death in Prisons 10. Seizing Opportunities to Promote the Protection of the Rights of all Migrants Part 3: Cornerstones for Social Cohesion 11. A Paradigm Shift for the Sustainable Development Goals? Human rights and the private sector in the new social contract 12. The Human Right to Food: Lessons learned towards food systems transformation 13. COVID-19 and the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation 14. Land Rights in Crisis 15. How the Pandemic has Impacted the Various Layers of the Global Garment Supply Chain 16. Campaigning for Both Innovation and Equitable Access to COVID-19 Medicines 17. Is COVID-19 Frustrating or Facilitating Sustainability Transformations? An assessment from a human rights law perspective Conclusion 18. The Post-crisis Human Rights Agenda

"This impressive book is indispensable for anyone who wants to understand the COVID-19 crisis from a human rights perspective. Through a comprehensive exploration of the impact of the coronavirus on diverse issues, the authors demonstrate why human rights are indeed an essential compass to guide our reactions and our policy to this unprecedented crisis."Kathryn Sikkink, Harvard University, USA"The COVID-19 Pandemic constitutes one of the major contemporary human rights challenges to governments and the international community. The current volume provides compelling insights to how we will be better prepared for similar challenges in the future. Governments had to take far-reaching measures which drastically restricted the rights to personal liberty, to work, to freedom of movement, privacy, property, the right to education and freedom of assembly. In addition, governments had to protect the most vulnerable groups and ensure that the Pandemic did not increase existing social and economic inequalities. After one year of trial and error, we need to admit that neither governments nor the international human rights community were prepared. This book offers ideas and inspiration for how to reach a scientifically sound and balanced human rights-based approach."Manfred Nowak, Vienna University and Secretary General of the Global Campus of Human Rights, Austria"The COVID-19 pandemic has provoked unprecedented restrictions to human rights even in democratic regimes and highlighted the obstacles to international cooperation. But it also underscored the crucial importance of protecting the right to health and other social rights to preserve human life and dignity as well as functioning economies and states. This timely book illuminates how pandemics can be fought from a human rights- based approach and what can be done to seize this opportunity to adopt transformative policies to overcome structural inequalities."Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa, Former President of the Constitutional Court of Colombia"Amid a flood of scholarly work on the human rights dimensions of the pandemic, this book stands out. Although written as events continue to unfold, the volume is remarkable for the penetrating analyses by leading scholars, which both cover an array of human rights issues, and raise critical, enduring questions regarding gaps not just in compliance but also in normative frameworks. While illuminating the sweeping devastation and upending of progress that the pandemic has wrought, the volume also offers hope that human rights frameworks can and must play a central role in transforming our social and international orders in light of the stark truths this crisis has laid bare."Alicia Ely Yamin, Harvard Law School, USARanked within the top 100 best COVID-19 Books of All Time recommended by thought leaders and experts: https://bookauthority.org/books/best-covid-19-books