scholarly journals Human Rights and Public Health Measures: the Legal Challenges of COVID-19

2020 ◽  
pp. 37-46
Author(s):  
Iryna ZHAROVSKA
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Global Challenge ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Legal Challenges ◽  
The Right

The article examines the interaction between human rights and public health measures in the face of new legal challenges caused by COVID-19. It is indicated that the legal reality is changing, human rights are limited, legal measures of a preventive nature are being taken in such conditions. It is underlined the importance of the national measures taken by the state to overcome the problem in order to protect public health. Therefore, comprehensive international and national safeguards are important for the latest global challenge. In connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, various countries have introduced a number of measures to protect the public health, as well as social measures, including keeping a safe distance, temporary suspending the work of educational institutions and enterprises, quarantine in different geographical areas and restrictions on movement. In accordance with the changes in the epidemiological picture at the local level, countries are making adjustments to the relevant measures. In Ukraine, in addition to constitutional norms and sectoral codified acts, there is the Law of Ukraine «On Protection of the Population from Infectious Diseases», which defines a set of measures authorized by public authorities to minimize the spread of a pandemic. Outbreaks identified for today have mainly occurred in clusters of patients who became infected as a result of close contact, in the family or at separate events characterized by crowds. Therefore, the restriction of the right to peaceful assembly, mass events is motivated and normatively justified. It is stated that the pandemic has caused a real threat to the realization of this right to persons of both school age and senior age, since all educational institutions of different levels received serious quarantine restrictions on the actual educational process. Statistics makes it possible to state that about 6 % of children are practically deprived of the opportunity to exercise the right to education. There is a discrepancy between the WHO recommendations, which do not recommend imposing any restrictions on travel or trade and the actions of nation states to close national borders for countries facing COVID-19 outbreaks. Contact tracking should be conducted in an appropriate manner so as not to interfere with the right to privacy.

scholarly journals Promoting the rights of migrant children in the educational institutions on the colombian-venezuelan border.

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-113
Author(s):  
Liany Yetzira Hernández-Granados ◽  
Javier Perozo-Hernández ◽  
Yesli Geraldine Murillo-Amado ◽  
Viviana Veronica Alarcon-Suarez
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Migrant Children ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
San Jose ◽  
Culture Of Peace ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

This article arises before the panorama of the political, economic and social crisis that the neighboring country of Venezuela has suffered in recent years, which has caused a large number of the Venezuelan population to migrate to different countries in search of better life conditions. Among them are boys and girls, who, faced with the need to continue their educational process, have begun their studies in various public schools in the city of San José de Cúcuta. This new phenomenon has caused a change in school environments, with different consequences, including the ever-increasing risk of problems of discrimination and xenophobia, where Venezuelan boys and girls may be exposed to abuse due to their socio-economic condition and their age. Based on this situation, the Human Rights Research Seedbed –SEMDHUM-, attached to the Law program of the Francisco de Paula Santander University, proposed an extension project that developed a culture of peace and coexistence, based on the investigation of the International and national normative framework regarding the right to education and equality of migrant children, educational pedagogical spaces were also generated in public primary educational institutions in the city of San José de Cúcuta, in order to raise awareness and train on the rights of migrant children in school and thus appropriate children in human rights, equality and non-discrimination. To carry out this project, the qualitative methodology and the pedagogical play method were applied, through activities and games, where the child learns and demonstrates their different perspectives and knowledge, improving the student and cultural environment.

The Origins of Human Rights in Global Health

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence O. Gostin ◽  
Benjamin Mason Meier
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Global Health ◽  
International Law ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Right To Health Care ◽  
Global Standards ◽  
The Right

This chapter introduces the foundational importance of human rights for global health, providing a theoretical basis for the edited volume by laying out the role of human rights under international law as a normative basis for public health. By addressing public health harms as human rights violations, international law has offered global standards by which to frame government responsibilities and evaluate health practices, providing legal accountability in global health policy. The authors trace the historical foundations for understanding the development of human rights and the role of human rights in protecting and promoting health since the end of World War II and the birth of the United Nations. Examining the development of human rights under international law, the authors introduce the right to health as an encompassing right to health care and underlying determinants of health, exploring this right alongside other “health-related human rights.”

s.One Norms and Principles, 3 The Right to Health and Health-Related Human Rights

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobin John ◽  
Barrett Damon
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Economic Determinants ◽  
Right To Health Care ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Health Goals ◽  
Health Related ◽  
State Obligations ◽  
The Right

This chapter reviews the scope and meaning of the right to health under international law. Drawing on public health discourses and expanding beyond a right to health care, the contours of the right to health have been clarified—to encompass a wide range of social, political, and economic determinants of health—by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) in its General Comment 14, by academics in the fields of law and public health, and by national governments in their domestic laws and judicial interpretations. The normative content of the right to health now provides a foundation for state obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill the right to health; limitations on other rights for public health goals; the right’s essential attributes of availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality; the minimum core obligations of the right to health; and the progressive realization of health-related human rights.

The right to health supports global public health

2021 ◽  
pp. 273-290
Author(s):  
Carmel Williams ◽  
Alison Blaiklock ◽  
Paul Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Supportive Relationship ◽  
The Right ◽  
Overseas Development

In this chapter, we explain how human rights, including the right to health, are important for global public health. We introduce key human rights concepts and principles, and illustrate three approaches to the right to health: judicial, policy, and empowerment. We propose that human rights and public health are natural allies with a complementary and supportive relationship. We describe the meaning of the right to the highest attainable standard of health and its place in international, regional, and national laws. We outline ten key elements of the right to health and how the right can be operationalized in public health practice. We demonstrate this with two case studies of critically important global public health issues—climate change and children’s health, and overseas development assistance—as well as one of an emerging challenge in health, the digitization of health through Big Data.

The Right to Health and Health-Related Human Rights

2020 ◽  
pp. 67-88
Author(s):  
John Tobin ◽  
Damon Barrett
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Economic Determinants ◽  
Right To Health Care ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Health Goals ◽  
Health Related ◽  
State Obligations ◽  
The Right

This chapter reviews the scope and meaning of the right to health under international law. Drawing on public health discourses and expanding beyond a right to health care, the contours of the right to health have been clarified—to encompass a wide range of social, political, and economic determinants of health—by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) in its General Comment 14, by academics in the fields of law and public health, and by national governments in their domestic laws and judicial interpretations. The normative content of the right to health now provides a foundation for state obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill the right to health; limitations on other rights for public health goals; the right’s essential attributes of availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality; the minimum core obligations of the right to health; and the progressive realization of health-related human rights.

s.Two Implementation and Accountability, 8 Justiciability of Human Rights for Health

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flood Colleen M ◽  
Thomas Bryan
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
Proper Role ◽  
Health Related ◽  
State Obligations ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

This chapter examines both the power and limitations of litigation as a means of facilitating accountability for the advancement of public health. While almost half of the world’s constitutions now contain a justiciable right to health, the impact of litigation has been mixed. Judicial accountability has, in some cases, advanced state obligations to realize the highest attainable standard of health, but in other cases, litigation has threatened the solidarity undergirding public health systems. There is significant country-to-country variation in interpreting health-related human rights, as well as differing views of the proper role of courts in interpreting and enforcing these rights. Surveying regional human rights systems and national judicial efforts to address health and human rights, it is necessary to analyze how courts have approached—and how they should approach—litigation of the right to health and health-related human rights to improve health for all.

scholarly journals The United Kingdom’s Coronavirus Act, deprivations of liberty, and the right to liberty and security of the person

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Pugh
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Legal Certainty ◽  
The Public ◽  
European Court ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right ◽  
Article 5

Abstract In response to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic the UK government has passed the Coronavirus Act 2020 (CA). Among other things, this act extends existing statutory powers to impose restrictions of liberty for public health purposes. The extension of such powers naturally raises concerns about whether their use will be compatible with human rights law. In particular, it is unclear whether their use will fall within the public heath exception to the Article 5 right to liberty and security of the person in the European Convention of Human Rights. In this paper, I outline key features of the CA, and briefly consider how the European Court of Human Rights has interpreted the public health exception to Article 5 rights. This analysis suggests two grounds on which restrictions of liberty enforced some under the CA might be vulnerable to claims of Article 5 rights violations. First, the absence of specified time limits on certain restrictions of liberty means that they may fail the requirement of legal certainty championed by the European Court in its interpretation of the public health exception. Second, the Coronavirus Act’s extension of powers to individuals lacking public health expertise may undermine the extent to which the act will ensure that deprivations of liberty are necessary and proportionate.

The management (or lack thereof) of COVID-19 in Brazil: implications for human rights and public health

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erick da Luz Scherf ◽  
Marcos Vinicius Viana da Silva ◽  
Janaina S. Fachini
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Health Management ◽  
Inductive Reasoning ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Public Health Institutions ◽  
Health Institutions ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
The Right

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how the COVID-19 pandemic has been managed in Brazil, especially at the Federal Administrative level, with the focus being on the implications for human rights and public health in the country. Design/methodology/approach The research is built on a qualitative design made up of a case-study and review of the literature and is based on inductive reasoning. Findings Main conclusions were that: by not making sufficient efforts to safeguard the lives of Brazilians or to strengthen public health institutions amid the pandemic, Bolsonaro’s Administration may be violating the rights to life and health, among others, by omission; it was demonstrated that the President has worked unceasingly to bulldoze anti-COVID-19 efforts, which can be better explained through the concepts of necropolitics and neoliberal authoritarianism. Research limitations/implications One of the limitations to this research is that this paper was not able to discuss more thoroughly which other human rights norms and principles (apart from the right to health, life and the duty to protect vulnerable populations) have possibly been violated amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. Overall, this research can help expand the literature on human rights in health management during and after emergency times. Originality/value This paper focuses on recent events and on urgent matters that need to be addressed immediately in Brazil. This study provides an innovative health policy/human rights analysis to build an academic account of the ongoing pandemic in the largest country in South America.

scholarly journals Facing financialization in the housing sector: A human right to adequate housing for all

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 94-114
Author(s):  
Ingrid Leijten ◽  
Kaisa de Bel
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Financial Markets ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Wealth Accumulation ◽  
Housing Conditions ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Social Good ◽  
The Right

Housing is increasingly seen as a vehicle for wealth accumulation rather than a social good. ‘Financialization’ of housing refers to the expanding and dominant role of financial markets and corporations in the field of housing, leading to unaffordable and insufficient housing and discrimination. Although clearly linked to the right to adequate housing, financialization and its effects are not often viewed from a human rights perspective. This article fleshes out this important link by illuminating the standards set in relation to the right to adequate housing enshrined in Article 11(1) ICESCR. It is shown that recently, human rights bodies have confronted the issue of financialization more directly, translating general requirements to this particular issue. Moreover, efforts at UN level are mirrored in initiatives at the local level, signalling the beginning of a shift towards a paradigm that complies with human rights. The financialization of housing and the response of human rights also allow for addressing a more general issue, namely the potential of majority protection in times of human rights backlash. In this regard, it is worth emphasising that human rights such as the right to adequate housing protect not only the extreme poor. In the context of financialization, this may contribute to better housing conditions as well as reconnect people to their human rights.

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