Equality and Non-Discrimination

Overweight people can experience discrimination in many settings including healthcare. The World Health Organisation is calling for a de-stigmatising approach in public policies to address obesity. How can human rights law help?

Victims of human rights violations are often reduced to numbers while their pain and suffering remain unreflected. Novels such as The Kite Runner resist against this treason to truth. Through a generalisable example, real or fictious storytelling brings to the reader the mostly unrecognised identity of victims as well as the experience of their challenges.

European solidarity towards people fleeing the war in Ukraine exposes discriminatory treatment of other asylum seekers. The decision to activate the Temporary Protection Mechanism to provide immediate protection to Ukrainian refugees shows that when there is political will, another approach is possible.

In this photo essay, I have tried to document the stories of some of those who had migrated to big cities in India and got trapped due to a COVID-19 lockdown.

The worldwide spread of COVID-19 has highlighted the relationship between global health law and human rights. However, a recent court case in Kenya reveals the intrinsic link between inequalities and economic concerns capable of limiting national and international rights standards.

Mandatory vaccination interferes with personal integrity but may be necessary to safeguard public health. However, states must consider all relevant factors in context and ensure such policies do not place disproportionate burdens on those hesitant about vaccination.

Intersectional discrimination against people on the move underpins inadequate responses to COVID-19. The right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications clearly demands substantive racial equality when designing economic and public health measures to address the pandemic.

Emergencies pose particular challenges to ethical research – yet research is essential for effective emergency response. Complementing human rights approaches, an ‘ethical compass’ of core values provides a basis to allocate responsibilities to a wide range of non-state duty-bearers.

The African Commission has emerged as a key voice promoting a continent-wide human rights response to COVID-19, while urging a shift in focus to tackle the massive underlying structural inequalities starkly exposed by the pandemic.

A global pandemic such as the one we are experiencing is one of those disruptive events that can generate momentum to revisit some of our basic assumptions and to delineate creative ways to shape the future(s).