The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on human rights practices: Findings from the Human Rights Measurement Initiative’s 2021 Practitioner Survey

Abstract

Abstract Health is a human right; as such, a public health crisis is a human rights crisis. Yet the human rights impact of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic seems to have varied widely, both across rights and across countries. How have human rights practices been affected by the pandemic so far? Which human rights were most negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic? Which states were most likely to experience these negative effects, and which states avoided a reduction in the enjoyment of human rights due to the pandemic? To provide some early answers to these questions, the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI) added questions to its annual practitioner survey that aimed at determining how a subset of civil, political, economic, and social rights was affected by COVID-19 in 2020 in 39 countries around the world. Using both quantitative and qualitative data from this survey, in combination with other indicators, this article provides a description of COVID-19’s human rights impact as seen by practitioners on the front lines around the world, as well as insight into the larger question of which factors enabled states to maintain a high level of enjoyment of human rights just when those rights were needed the most.