Corona crisis: Human rights must guide the political response

Abstract

The corona crisis has a specific human rights dimension: it calls for states to protect one of the core human rights for substantial percentages of humanity, and the responses to that call are having numerous impacts on the realisation and protection of human rights. Human rights provide standards and binding principles that can and must guide states in their responses to the pandemic. The state's duty to ensure the protection of the health of all persons on an equal basis derives from the human right to health. In crisis situations, the state can, in principle, limit other human rights in pursuit of this duty. The legitimate aim of protecting public health must not result in excessive limitations on other rights, however, nor may it result in discriminatory treatment of particular population groups.