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Article by-
JYOTI
ICFAI LAW SCHOOL, HYDERABAD
INTRODUCTION:-
In the COVID-19 pandemic, human rights criticism has mostly emphasized on constraints on individual liberties in order to safeguard public health, but it is critical to consider the broader significance of implementing human rights to improve public health in the COVID-19 crisis.
The constitutional right to the best quality of life possible provides legally enforceable normative guidelines for health-care institutions, larger social actions, and global solidarity. Health commodities, and infrastructure must be available in sufficient quantities; attainable on a monetary, territorial, and socially responsible basis; acceptable, specifically ethnically suitable and cognizant of sexual identity and professional ethics; and of exceptional quality, according to the right to health.
Many jurisdictions, though, have struggled to increase the integrity and administration of COVID-19-related health coverage, resulting in scarcity of critical medical services, such as diagnostics, ventilation systems, and oxygen, as well as personal protection equipment for health-care personnel.
The right to the adequate living level of health, which, for the 171 Signatory States to the Covenant On civil and political on Monetary, Economic, and Cultural Rights, puts a duty on States to take all possible steps to ensure "the avoidance, care, and regulation of epidemics," is a key component of the human rights legislation and principles underlying these evaluations and the freedom to "take the benefit of technological advancement and its uses" in the field of access to treatment.(1)
HOW HAS COVID-19 AFFECTED HUMAN RIGHTS?
During the time of the pandemic there’s been a disturbing increase in the no. of news reports about various countries expanding emergency powers which is understandable but the nature of the emergency powers has exceeded the scope of the requirements of the need to address the pandemic in a particular which is most disconcerting is that the reports indicated the emergency powers are being used to advance political purposes against dissidents and so for anyone who’s supporter of human rights or a supporter of liberal democracy these kinds of things were somewhat alarming.
WHAT OPPORTUNITIES ARE THERE TO PROMOTE HUMAN RIGHTS?
There’s a compatibility between the tenants of the scientific method and civil liberties and so specifically that transparency implies the right information data collection implies the rights of assembly and communication to be able to engage or for researchers to engage with research subject the integrity of data implies a requirement that there’s an independence from manipulation particularly from the state and that the data is maintained separate from political interest the demands of critical analysis requires a freedom of thought and freedom of opinion and the tenants of having an open discourse that can facilitate the kind of engagement necessary to further critical analysis involves in a freedom of security for people to go ahead and further inquiry without worry of retribution to their lives or livelihood.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE LONG TERM IMPLICATION?
So the long term implications for human rights, I have out of the covid-19 pandemic will be a contest and what I would expect to see going forward in the future is a struggle between pro authoritarian inclinations versus liberal interests. I think we will continue to see various regimes around the world attempt to use the crises to further their political interests, there is that maxim that you should never let a crisis go to waste for political ends however in response to that I think that liberal states have opportunities to moreover and that they do have an ability to work through the pandemic as means of defending and advancing liberal values and specifically for liberal states that have committed themselves to developing medical science and medical technology so presumably in this case given in the past several decades that would include Australia there is the potential that they can advise stay to which they render assistance particularly within the developing world that the efficacy of the medical science the potential of the medical technology is predicated on having a liberal environment.(2)
The quick discovery of safe and efficient COVID-19 vaccines has been a scientific breakthrough, and it holds out hope for a healthy post-pandemic future. Inequitable vaccine availability, on the other hand, has put that goal in jeopardy, and our global governance institutions have failed to predict, prevent, or address the problem. (3)
HUMAN RIGHTS DIMENSIONS OF ACCESS TO COVID-19 HEALTH PRODUCT:-
The human rights dimension of access to covid-19 health products so in my view to deal with this pandemic effectively and fairly governments must take a human rights based approach and human right to health and particularly must be central in such an approach a human rights based approach is grounded in international law as appreciate also nicely explained that is international legally binding obligations for states. It must acknowledge that individuals are right holders and that states are duty bearers more with such an approach must take account of a number of the key human rights principles first and foremost the fundamental principle of non- discrimination and equality as such human rights based approach to covid-19 goes beyond just the numbers. For example if the government and manage to substantially increase their testing capacity but exclude vulnerable or dis- advantaged populations such as undocumented migrants then that is not a success. Other key of human right principles include participation transparency and monitoring and accountability. So human rights based approach to covid-19 places to right to health centre stage and the right to health demands that health products including diagnostics possible vaccines and medicines are adequately available, accessible, affordable and safe that is human rights duty under international law.
I think the challenge is twofold first we need to get a safe and effective vaccine and possibly to know huge issue treatment options to effectively treat covid-19 and second, this important ensuring that any newly developed vaccine or medicine is available and accessible to all so first although we were not there yet there are about hundred vaccine candidates and that is very promising and many governments together have already pledged billions of dollars to develop covid-19 and lead if promise these products will be global health goods and there’s board consensus for this and that is very commendable but it is not just a public health priority rather it is very important to acknowledge that states are human rights duty to advance science and innovation for the public good and the legal basis for that can be found in human rights in the right to health but also and the rather underdeveloped right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress. And in my opinion states have a positive duty to foster and stimulate health related research development and to create an enabling environment beneficial to public health particularly in the context of a pandemic and safe can do so in several ways. For example by allocating public resources and prioritizing them towards critical health issues. However much work still needs to be done to clarify the parameters of such obligations. The second and the equally important step for government is to ensure that any newly developed covid-19 product is accessible to everyone and access to medicines we must recognize is an human rights issues and it has received much attention. It’s a complicated issue and it’s not unique to covid-19. When we look back for example to the HIV pandemic we that ensuring that patients have access to affordable antiretroviral was huge challenge and actually to this day essential medicines are still out of reach to millions of patients often because they are prohibitively expensive and therefore unaffordable and that is linked to intellectual property rights especially the patenting of such medicines, because the current patent system rewards developers of new products with legally enforceable monopoly rights typically for 20 years and that means that pharmaceutical companies are free to set prices for these products more on many things cannot actually deny granting patents for essential medicines since international rules prohibit them from doing so but UN Human Rights Bodies have confirmed that intellectual property rights not lead to limited access to essential medicines so human rights based approach to covid-19 demands that governments prevent IP rights patterns from becoming a barrier to access a prohibitively priced covid-19 vaccine would mean that it would be unaffordable and inaccessible to large parts of the world and mostly in laws and middle income countries and that would not only be ineffective but actually contrary to the non- discrimination principle which is so fundamental to human rights and it would be particularly unacceptable considering that much of the funding.
The relationship between health and human rights was originally established in the early response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and it has expanded over the last 30 years to offer a human rights framework for the COVID-19 approach. Human rights must also lead legislative reactions to COVID-19, bolstering the human rights - based approach by phrasing restrictions on individual liberties, managing COVID-19's effects on medical care, population health, and fundamental human rights, and achieving global solidarity via the research collaborations and advice. In reaction to COVID-19, several countries have passed emergency legislation restricting individual rights, including restrictions on freedom of movement through house confinement and restrictions on the privacy rights through primary prevention. While epidemics may need constraints on personal rights to preserve public health, these limits must be essential (based on sound scientific evidence), reasonable (in relation to the public health hazard, and limited in time), and pseudo (non-discriminatory). Governments must concentrate safeguarding the most vulnerable individuals in society via open governance and public involvement to guarantee that public health policies adopt a rights-based approach to medicine. In addition to individual liberty, states have a responsibility under the human right to health to guarantee that COVID-19 prevention and treatment are available, accessible, accepted, and of high quality. During periods of physical separation, a wide variety of fundamental freedoms, such as the employment rights, social assistance, lodging, food, water, and hygiene, are required to sustain underlying health outcomes. Governments have a shared responsibility supply international help and cooperate in order to obtain access to food, vital supplies, diagnostics, and medical help in the fight against the COVID-19 crisis. (4)
CONCLUSION:-
It can be concluded that there are a few concerns that are yet to be understood. There are various issues concerning Human Rights, International trade, the Securitization of Pandemics, and the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility. Even after maintaining medical services and transporting needed commodities from one location to another, complicated techniques to deal with the above concerns are still necessary. In the subject of human rights, the WHO director-PHEIC general's pronouncements have previously included requests to place people in isolation or quarantine. However, this is insufficient. The Covid-19 epidemic, as Snowden’s smart work foretold, is a watershed point in society existence. States both implicitly and explicitly have a once-in-a-lifetime change to create a precedent and being seriously addressing the core causes of global inequality and poverty. If these efforts are to successful, making the correct choices and taking a moral position on the necessity of access to Covid-19 treatment is both realistic and spiritual. Medicine must be recognized and recognized as a worldwide public benefit and as a fundamental right. Private enterprises should not be allowed to obstruct equal and impartial access to medications for all people.
References:-
(4) https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/9/e003359
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