In a video message on Thursday, the UN Chief said there is discrimination in the delivery of public services to tackle COVID-19 and there are “structural inequalities that impede access to them,” reports the Associated Press.
Guterres cited the pandemic’s “disproportionate effects on certain communities, the rise of hate speech, the targeting of vulnerable groups, and the risks of heavy-handed security responses undermining the health response.”
He also warned that with “rising ethno-nationalism, populism, authoritarianism and pushback against human rights in some countries, the crisis can provide a pretext to adopt repressive measures for purposes unrelated to the pandemic.”
Guterres said any emergency measures — including states of emergency — must be “legal, proportionate, necessary and non-discriminatory, have a specific focus and duration, and take the least intrusive approach possible to protect public health.”
“The message is clear: People — and their rights — must be front and center,” Guterres said, per The Times of Israel.
#COVID19 is a public health emergency — that is fast becoming a human rights crisis.
People — and their rights — must be front and centre.
My new report on how human rights can and must guide #coronavirus response & recovery: pic.twitter.com/rssMV0MPBg
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) April 23, 2020
In February, according to Time.com, Guterres laid out a seven-point plan that was intended to help countries, businesses, and people renew and revive human rights across the globe, especially now that the planet is contending with a pandemic, climate change, conflict, and repression.
“As I said then, human rights cannot be an afterthought in times of crisis — and we now face the biggest international crisis in generations,” he said.
Guterres also said he was releasing a report today detailing how human rights must guide the response to the virus and recovery from the pandemic. He did not name any particular country or group responsible for human rights violations.
