Human Rights Issues in Infectious Diseas

In public health emergencies involving infectious disease, there is often a legitimate necessity to curtail individual rights in the name of protecting the public. COVID-19 illustrates this reality graphically and tragically. Quarantining and mandated isolation throughout history have been associated with a range of human rights abuses.  In the COVID-19 crisis, they led in some places to inappropriate use of criminal law and elevated risk of interpersonal violence.  COVID-19 has led to the undermining of access to sexual and reproductive health services, including abortion.  In many parts of the world, the basic rights of persons who lost their livelihoods due to the disease, including women and low-paid workers, have not been protected.  In infectious disease crises, the right to confidentiality of medical records may be readily violated. The health rights of prisoners, pretrial detainees, detained immigrants, and persons in refugee camps or settlements, where physical distancing is not possible, are likely to be denied on a massive scale. Marginalized persons who have struggled for essential health services in the past – including racial and ethnic minorities, women and girls, people who use drugs, LGBT persons, migrants, sex workers and disabled people – face new stigma and other challenges in health emergencies. Price-gouging and other practices of pharmaceutical and medical equipment companies may undermine the public’s right to health.  The right to scientifically sound health information, crucial in infectious disease emergencies, is often denied. 

The course will draw on the UN Siracusa Principles for rights-based management of emergencies to analyze the kinds of violations noted here and to identify policies and practices that would protect, respect and fulfill health-related human rights in these challenging circumstances. While COVID-19 provides vivid examples, literature from SAFS, MERS, H1N1, Ebola and other epidemics will also be consulted.