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Abstract
Policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted a range of human rights, with the pandemic being used to justify police violence, authoritarian power grabs, and corruption. Health systems in high- and low-income countries have struggled to provide adequate COVID-19 testing, tracing, and treatment, with non-COVID-19 healthcare-restricted, vulnerable populations at high risk of infection and negative health and social impacts, and lockdowns exacerbating poverty, domestic violence, and mental health problems. If underresourced health systems are overwhelmed by COVID-19, and individuals are forced to bear testing and treatment costs, there is a stronger likelihood of health system failures, for higher mortality from a range of causes, and for people to be pushed further into poverty and insecurity. COVID-19 thus underscores the urgent need for clearer rules about legitimate restrictions of the right to health in responding to the pandemic, and for safeguarding global health policy initiatives in its aftermath. This article focuses on key right-to-health challenges, including realization of universal health coverage, and potential challenges in access to future COVID-19 therapies and vaccines. We conclude with reflections on what the pandemic may mean for the evolution of human rights, and the right to health in particular.
Notes
1 The Siracusa Principles are a set of criteria created by human rights experts to guide policymakers in what constitutes legitimate restrictions of human rights.
2 For a related discussion, see Nolan (Citation2014: 2–3), Cummins (Citation2013: i), and Kyrili and Martin (Citation2010: 38).
3 For a related discussion, see WHO (Citation2012, Citation2013: 5); Norheim (Citation2015: 712); and Ooms, Abdul Latif, Waris, Hammonds, Friedman, Brolan, and Forman (Citation2014: 1-7).
4 For a related discussion, see Durojayé and Mirugi-Mukundi (Citation2012: 3–6) and Toebes (Citation2009: 102–134).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Lisa Forman
Lisa Forman is a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Human Rights and Global Health Equity, and associate professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. She is an international human rights law scholar whose research has explored how the right to health may contribute to reducing global health inequities. Forman is a dual citizen of Canada and South Africa, and qualified as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa, with a BA and LLB from the University of the Witwatersrand. Her graduate studies include a master’s degree in human rights studies from Columbia University and a doctorate in juridical science from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law.
Jillian Clare Kohler
Jillian Clare Kohler, Ph.D., is a professor at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto. She is also director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Governance, Transparency, and Accountability in the Pharmaceutical Sector and a Connaught Scholar, University of Toronto. She pioneered the methodology on good governance in the pharmaceutical system for the World Bank, which was subsequently adopted by the WHO and has been applied in more than 38 countries globally. She is a technical adviser to the Access to Medicines Index and has been a consultant to the WHO, the UNDP, and the World Bank on pharmaceutical and health policy.