The Matter of Human Rights in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Main Authors: Claudiu Coman, Maria Cristina Bularca, Silviu Gabriel Barbu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institutul Român pentru Drepturile Omului 2021-06-01
• Series: Drepturile Omului
• Subjects: human rights; pandemic; vaccination prioritization; freedom; education; cultural life
• Online Access: http://revista.irdo.ro/pdf/2021/revista_1_2021/03_Articol_Coman.pdf

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated many changes in the way people used to carry out their lives. In order to protect people's health and overcome the crisis, governments implemented specific measures that reflected negatively on fundamental human rights. Thus, in this paper we provide a literature review on the impact of measures implemented by countries on human rights, and we argue that in the attempt to ensure the right to health, other rights of people were neglected and restricted. In this regard, the paper addresses the subject of limiting the right to freedom, the right to education, the right to participate to cultural life, and we also describe the issue of the vaccine prioritization process that raises questions related to the discrimination of certain people. The paper also highlights the fact that, even if countries tried to promote prosocial behaviour and encourage people to be willing to get vaccinated, by offering benefits to vaccinated people, individuals who refused the vaccine were discriminated. Therefore, by emphasizing the way the measures implemented by countries restricted people’s rights, the paper draws attention to the fairness and equity of such measures and also supports the idea that even in special situations like the ones generated by a pandemic, governments should elaborate response strategy plans meant to protect human rights, not limit them.