Human Rights Dimensions and Challenges of Covid 19

Dealing with the outbreak of Covid-19 requires measures and decisionsthat, while protecting individual and public health, may involve restrictionson human rights. Many governments have declared a state of emergency tocombat the disease or, without formally declaring such a situation, havefactually imposed such a situation and restricted individual rights andfreedoms. In the meantime, the international human rights system, whichprotects individual’s rights, even in the emergencies, requires governmentsto adhere to principles and rules that can strike a reasonable balance betweenprotecting public health and meeting their human rights obligations.Accordingly, the question in this article is that what human rights issues andchallenges do the governments face in the process of dealing with Covid-19and what the solutions are to address them. Referring to international humanrights standards and by reference to the actions of governments, it can besaid that the main challenge is that most governments have pursued a policyof "this or that" and mainly prioritize the protection of public health overhuman rights; Whereas, from a human rights perspective, they should havepursued a policy of "both this and that."The international human rightssystem, in its right-based language, prescribes a specific framework forcombating Covid-19. In this context, the policy of "countering the Covid 19at all costs" gives way to the policy of "countering the Covid-19 with respectto fundamental values." Human rights norms prevent the formation ofdiscriminatory, instrumental, expedient and hierarchical views in the processof combating the disease. It obliges governments to mobilize all theirnational resources to combat this virus, to make resort to internationalresources, and to enforce any restrictions on human rights in accordancewith the principles of legality, necessity and proportionality. Accordingly,although all human rights are affected by the policies and responsesassociated with Covid-19, it seems, some rights, such as freedom ofexpression and non-discrimination, play a key role in the normality andeffectiveness of these policies and responses and hence, should not berestricted unless strictly necessary (human rights governing measures againstCovid-19) and some human rights, such as privacy and freedom ofmovement, must inevitably be restricted (human rights affected by Covid-19). To this end, in this article, first the various dimensions of the right tohealth in the international human rights system and the principles oflimitation of human rights for ensuring public health are explained and then,the corresponding challenges related to the impact of human rights inresponses to Covid-19 are analyzed respectively.