Abstract:
This report combines insights from two parallel and complementary projects initiated by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The two projects apply differing methodologies, top-down and bottom-up approaches respectively, to gain a multifaceted understanding of the synergies, impacts and possible gaps in the human rights impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and response in Kerala, India.
Analyzing and Evaluating COVID-19 Law and Policy from a Human Rights Perspective
With support from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute is carrying out a pilot study on legal and policy responses to the pandemic and the human rights impacts thereof. By studying the approaches of fifteen different countries using a new tool, this project hopes to identify and share promising practices, as well as patterns that reveal a need for a more systematic integration of rights-based approaches, such as in relation to the rights of persons with disabilities, migrant workers, indigenous people and others. The study aims to support constructive dialogue at national level and will identify good practices that can be shared at regional and international levels. Crowdsourcing First Hand Accounts of Human Rights Impacts and Initiatives in the Context of COVID-19 In response to the challenges raised by the COVID-19 pandemic, the OHCHR initiated a pilot crowdsourcing project in Kerala, which aims to collect accounts of bottom-up grassroots initiatives created during the pandemic, which reflect promising practices that can be established as best practices over time. The best practices compiled through the crowdsourcing will be used to encourage further positive initiatives and developments and to advocate with States and stakeholders to adapt and adopt to rebuild a better world in response to COVID-19 specifically and other future epidemics and public health crises.