Sep 15, 2020 | Advocacy, Non-legal submissions
At the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the ICJ has urged States to ensure human rights and avoid discriminatory impacts, and for businesses to respect their human rights responsibilities, in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The oral statement, delivered in a general debate on the update of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, read as follows:
“In our latest report, Living Like People Who Die Slowly: The Need for Right to Health Compliant COVID-19 Responses,[1] the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) calls on States to ensure that their individual and collective responses to the COVID-19 pandemic comply with international human rights law, including the right to health.
Any abuse of pandemic measures to repress human rights defenders, dissenting voices, or civil society more generally, is unacceptable. Respect for freedom of expression, including the right to information, is essential to effectively addressing the pandemic.
The particularly acute impact of COVID-19 on already-marginalized people heightens the importance of equal access to health facilities, goods and services. The report documents disproportionate impacts on non-citizens, older persons, women and girls, LGBT persons, persons deprived of their liberty, persons with disabilities, sex workers and healthcare workers.
Businesses, and particularly private actors in the healthcare sector must meet their responsibility to respect human rights. This will be crucial in the development, production and distribution of any COVID-19 vaccine.
Madame President, the ICJ emphasizes the continuing importance and applicability of the 1984 Siracusa Principles on the Limitation and Derogation Provisions in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,[2] and the recognition in the WHO International Health Regulations that implementing measures must be fully consistent with human rights.”
[1] https://www.icj.org/icj-new-global-report-shows-that-the-right-to-health-must-be-central-to-state-responses-to-covid-19/ (1 September 2020).
[2] https://www.icj.org/siracusa-principles-on-the-limitation-and-derogation-provisions-in-the-international-covenant-on-civil-and-political-rights/ and UN Doc E/CN.4/1985/4, Annex.
The full range of materials produced by the ICJ concerning the COVID-19 pandemic can be accessed at: https://www.icj.org/human-rights-in-the-time-of-covid-19-front-and-centre/
Sep 1, 2020 | News, Publications, Reports, Thematic reports
In a new report published today, the ICJ called on all States to ensure that their responses to the public health emergency brought on by the COVID-19 comply with the international human rights law and the right to health.
The report emphasized the particularly acute and discriminatory impact of the pandemic on already marginalized people and the need for access to health facilities, goods and services necessary to combat COVID-19 without discrimination.
The report Living Like People Who Die Slowly: The Need for Right to Health Compliant COVID-19 Responses documents the adverse human rights effects wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The title comes from the words of Mama Yuli, an Indonesian transwoman, who has said that the pandemic left many elderly transwomen feeling like “they live like people who die slowly”.
The report emphasizes the need for a human rights and rule of law-based approach to the pandemic, with States working cooperatively to address a health crisis that by its nature knows no national boundaries.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is public health crisis that presents immeasurable threats to human rights and the rule of law globally, said Ian Seiderman, the ICJ’s Legal and Policy Director.
“But what is crucial is that States responses themselves not only respond immediately and effectively to COVID-19 as a public health emergency, but also as a human rights crisis”, he added.
Building on the ICJ’s earlier responses to COVID-19, the report details the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on non-citizens, older persons, women and girls, LGBT persons, persons deprived of their liberty, persons with disabilities, sex workers and healthcare workers.
The report also emphasizes the need for the provision of health information by State authorities in the context of COVID-19 and scrutinizes measures taken by States which have often curbed the rights to freedom of expression, information and privacy.
For example, though “contracting tracing” measures may be effective they must also be human rights compliant and information gathered through such measures should not be used inappropriately or as an instrument of repression of individuals and human defenders.
Acknowledging the interconnectedness of all human rights, the report emphasizes the need for States to ensure provision and protection of access to the “social determinants of health” such as housing, food and water, themselves also internationally protected rights.
The report provides recommendations to States that may assist in ensuring right to health and human rights compliant responses to COVID-19.
The ICJ called on States to respect the various guidance offered by UN human rights treaty bodies and independent experts on how best to comply with their human rights obligations while responding to the pandemic.
The human rights system provides important guidance to States that was not available, for example, during the 1918 influenza pandemic, which ultimately resulted in an estimated 50 million deaths.
“States must heed these calls for a human rights and rule of law-based response to COVID-19, as failure to do so will certainly result in death and human suffering that can still be avoided,” said Seiderman.
The report also raises the importance of compliance by businesses, including particularly private actors in the healthcare sector, with their responsibility to respect human rights, including the right to health.
This will be critical, for example, in ensuring the success of combined efforts of States and private companies in the development and ultimate distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Contact
Timothy Fish Hodgson, ICJ Legal Adviser on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, t: +27828719905 e: timothy.hodgson@icj.org
Download
Universal-Global Health COVID-19 Exec Sum-Publications-Reports-Thematic Reports-2020-ENG (Executive Summary, in PDF)
Universal-Global Health COVID-19-Publications-Reports-Thematic Reports-2020-ENG (Full report, in PDF)
Myanmar-ICJ-Right-to-Health-Report-2021-BUR.pdf (Full report in Burmese)
Read also
Human Rights in the time of COVID-19: Front and Centre – ICJ news, articles, op-eds, legal blogs, videos
COVID-19 Symposium: COVID-19 Responses and State Obligations Concerning the Right to Health (Part 1)
COVID-19 Symposium: COVID-19 Responses and State Obligations Concerning the Right to Health (Part 2)
Watch
Aug 28, 2020 | News
The ICJ contributed to and has endorsed a groundbreaking new UN standard aimed at ensuring effective access to justice for persons with disabilities, published today in Geneva.
Published today by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Principles and Guidelines on Access to Justice for Persons with Disabilities were adopted jointly by the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General on Disability and Accessibility. They have been endorsed by the ICJ and the International Disability Alliance.
The ICJ contributed to the development of the Principles and Guidelines, including through participation in expert consultations alongside disability rights experts, organizations of people with disabilities, State representatives, academics, and other judicial and legal practitioners. The ICJ also plans to assist with promotion and implementation of the Principles and Guidelines at the global and national levels.
Building on the provisions and interpretations of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and other international standards and best practices, the document affirms ten key principles of access to justice for people with disabilities and sets out detailed guidelines on how to implement each one.
The Principles and Guidelines are intended to be a practical tool to help inform the design and implementation of justice systems that provide equal access to justice for persons with disabilities, in line with international human rights standards.
The Principles and Guidelines can be downloaded by clicking here.
Further information about the process of their development is available here, and the UN press release announcing their publication is here.
Jul 13, 2020 | Advocacy, Non-legal submissions
Speaking at the UN Human Rights Council the ICJ today emphasized the need for a human-rights-based approach to addressing corruption in justice systems, and urged more attention be given to the abuse of non-independent prosecution services by Executive governments.
The statement, delivered in an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, read as follows:
“Mr Special Rapporteur,
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) concurs with the affirmation in your report that justice systems must effectively counter corruption; that corruption in justice systems negatively impacts human rights; and that addressing such impacts is within the mandate of the Human Rights Council.[1]
At the same time, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) already actively provides resources and specialized technical expertise to States and prosecutors in implementing the Convention against Corruption. Keeping the Human Rights Council’s focus on the specific value added by a human-rights-based approach to such overlapping issues makes the best use of the Council and OHCHR’s limited resources and special competence and expertise.
For example, this report could have presented a detailed analysis of, and recommendations on, the right to remedy and reparation of victims of human rights violations caused by corruption of prosecutors, judges and lawyers. However, while the report briefly mentions victims (para 30), human rights defenders (para 31), and human rights training (para 58), and that human rights issues can impede international cooperation (para 49), but otherwise it mostly addresses technical advice for effective counter-corruption measures. The ICJ invites you to elaborate on the specific new elements a human-rights-based approach adds to the expert advice already provided by UNODC in this regard.
We also urge you to devote a future report to the manipulation of non-independent prosecution services by Executive governments to repress dissenting voices and human rights defenders, neutralize political opposition, shrink civil society space, and entrench impunity for human rights violations, which as our submission documented is no less urgent a global human rights issue than corruption, and is not a special focus of UN bodies other than the Council and OHCHR.
Thank you.”
[1] Indeed, twenty years ago the ICJ adopted a Policy Framework for Preventing and Eliminating Corruption and Ensuring the Impartiality of the Judicial System and its work against corruption in cooperation with judiciaries and prosecution services continues at the global and national levels.
Jul 7, 2020 | Advocacy, Non-legal submissions
The ICJ, along with other NGOs, made a joint submission in response to the call for written contributions in advance of the General Assembly’s review of the UN human rights treaty body system and of the effectiveness of the measures taken to strengthen the system in Resolution 68/268 (2014).
The submission reiterates the ICJ’s strong commitment to the treaty body system, and reiterates that it is essential that UN Member States adequately support this key component of the UN’s human rights architecture.
Download the submission here: Universal-NGO response to TBSP cofacs questions-Advocacy-non legal submissions-2020-ENG
