[*]

Human Rights and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Resources for teachers seeking to apply a business and human rights lens to the COVID-19 pandemic include relevant international standards, guidance from international organizations and non-profits, commentary on specific human rights impacts, and materials on corporate responsibilities and sector-specific responses. The resources below have been identified by members of the Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum.[1] The categories headings below are an initial list to be expanded. If you would like to suggest a resource for this page, please e-mail Forum Co-Director Anthony Ewing (aewing@law.columbia.edu).

Websites

• Business and Human Rights Resource Centre – COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Outbreak materials

A clearinghouse for COVID-19 materials worldwide, including in-depth areas on:

• Government and business response (COVID-19 Action Tracker)
• Supply chain workers
• Migrant workers
• Human rights defenders and civic freedoms
• Surveillance, censorship & privacy

• International Labour Organization –  COVID-19 and the World of Work

• Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights –  COVID-19 and its human rights dimensions

• International Justice Resource Center – COVID-19 Guidance from Supranational Human Rights Bodies

“Collects the resolutions, press releases, and other statements from human rights bodies and their parent intergovernmental organizations on States’ obligations to respect human rights in mitigating COVID-19.”

• Just Capital – The COVID-19 Corporate Response Tracker: How America’s Largest Employers Are Treating Stakeholders Amid the Coronavirus Crisis

• Just Security – Mapping the Proliferation of Human Rights Bodies’ Guidance on COVID-19 Mitigation

• Pillar Two – Managing business-related human rights risks during and after C-19

A list of current resources, “focusing on those that support business to identify and address their human rights risks, showcase collective business practice or provide other guidance to business.”

• Unicef – Coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

• UN Principles for Responsible Investment – COVID-19 Resources

• World Economic Forum – COVID-19

• World Health Organization

International Standards

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

• International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966)

• Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 14: The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health (Art. 12) (11 August 2000), available at https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/4538838d0.pdf

• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966)

• UN Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 29: Article 4: Derogations during a State of Emergency (31 August 2001), available at https://www.refworld.org/docid/453883fd1f.html

• UN Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 27: Article 12 (Freedom of Movement) (2 November 1999), available at https://www.refworld.org/docid/45139c394.html

• Siracusa Principles on the Limitation and Derogation Provisions in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1984), available at https://www.icj.org/wp-content/uploads/1984/07/Siracusa-principles-ICCPR-legal-submission-1985-eng.pdf.

• Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Res. No. 1/2020, Pandemic and Human Rights in the Americas (Adopted Apr. 10, 2020), available at http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/decisions/pdf/Resolution-1-20-en.pdf.

Readings

Human rights approaches

• African Commission on Human and  Peoples’ Rights, Press Statement on Human Rights Based Effective Response to the Novel COVID-19 Virus in Africa (Mar. 24, 2020), available at: https://www.achpr.org/pressrelease/detail?id=483.

• Amnesty International, COVID-19: How human rights can help protect us (Mar. 20, 2020), available at https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/03/coronavirus-how-human-rights-help-protect-us/.

• Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights, Responding to COVID-19, available at http://claihr.ca/advocacy/covid-human-rights/.

• Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Dimensions of COVID-19 Response (Mar. 19, 2020), available at https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/19/human-rights-dimensions-covid-19-response#.

• Journal of Human Rights, Special Issue on Human Rights in the Time of COVID-19 (Nov-Dec 2020, forthcoming) (Flyer – PDF)

• Katharina Pistor, ed., Law in the Time of COVID-19 (April 2020), available at https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/books/240/.

A joint effort by members of the faculty of Columbia Law School and several law professors from other schools, this e-book includes chapters on COVID-19 and Prisoners’ Rights, Immigration in the Time of COVID-19, Privacy and Pandemics, COVID-19 and LGBT Rights, and COVID-19 as a Force Majeure in Corporate Transactions.

• United Nations, COVID-19 and Human Rights: We are all in this together (April 2020), available at https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/un_policy_brief_on_human_rights_and_covid_23_april_2020.pdf.

• UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, Ensuring that business respects human rights during the Covid-19 crisis and beyond: The relevance of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (May 2020), available at https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25837&LangID=E.

Responsibilities of business

• Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, Public Call for ISDS Moratorium During COVID-19 Crisis and Response (May 5, 2020), available at http://ccsi.columbia.edu/2020/05/05/isds-moratorium-during-covid-19/.

• Jonathan Drimmer, Leveraging Anti-Bribery Compliance Programs to Address Human Rights in a Post-COVID-19 World, TRACE (2020), available at https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/5002429/Promotional%20Materials/Publications/White%20Papers/2020%20Leveraging%20Anti-Bribery%20Compliance%20Programs%20to%20Address%20Human%20Rights%20in%20a%20Post-COVID-19%20World.pdf.

• Ethical Corporation, Paul Polman: ‘Coronavirus is an acid test for stakeholder capitalism’ (Mar. 20, 2020), available at http://www.ethicalcorp.com/paul-polman-coronavirus-acid-test-stakeholder-capitalism.

• Anthony Ewing, Integrating Human Rights into Crisis Planning, A Good Practice Note endorsed by the United Nations Global Compact Human Rights and Labour Working Group (6 October 2015), available at https://logosconsulting.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Integrating-HR-Into-Crisis-Planning-GPN-Oct-2105.pdf.

• Institute for Human Rights and Business, Respecting Human Rights in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Examining Companies’ Responsibilities for Workers and Affected Communities (April 2020), available at https://www.ihrb.org/focus-areas/covid-19/report-respecting-human-rights-in-the-time-of-covid19.

• OECD, COVID-19 and Responsible Business Conduct (2020), available at https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/view/?ref=129_129619-6upr496iui&title=COVID-19-and-Responsible-Business-Conduct.

• Oxfam International, Businesses Want Governments on Stand-by for Coronavirus Relief (Apr. 24, 2020), available at https://medium.com/@Oxfam/businesses-want-governments-on-stand-by-for-coronavirus-relief-db5dbb99f69e.

• MIchael Posner, Coronavirus Pandemic Reveals Our Economic Inequality, Forbes (May 14, 2020), available at https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelposner/2020/05/14/coronavirus-pandemic-reveals-our-economic-inequality/#4fdc011779fe.

• Amanda Romero, Diana Figueroa, and Marina Novaes, Challenges of COVID-19 in Latin America, the most unequal region in the world, OpenDemocracy (May 13, 2020), available at https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/challenges-covid-19-latin-america-most-unequal-region-world/.

• Shift, Making Rights-Respecting Business Decisions in a COVID-19 World (May 2020), available at https://www.shiftproject.org/resources/publications/making-rights-respecting-business-decisions-in-a-covid-19-world/.

• Irit Tamir, Oxfam, What’s the role of business in the COVID-19 crisis? (Apr. 2, 2020), available at https://politicsofpoverty.oxfamamerica.org/whats-the-role-of-business-in-the-covid-19-crisis/.

• Salil Tripathi, Companies, COVID-19 and Respect for Human Rights, Business and Human Rights Journal (2020, 1–9), available at https://doi.org/10.1017/bhj.2020.16.

• Anna Triponel and John Sherman, Moral bankruptcy during times of crisis: H&M just thought twice before triggering force majeure clauses with suppliers, and here’s why you should too (Mar. 31, 2020), available at https://www.hks.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/centers/mrcbg/files/TriponelSherman_ForceMajeureArticle_31March2020_Final_0.pdf.

• UN Women (Asia and the Pacific), Guidance Note for Action: Gender-Sensitive Private Sector Response to COVID-19 for Accelerated and Inclusive Economic Recovery (2020), available at https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2020/04/guidance-for-action-gender-sensitive-private-sector-response-to-covid-19.

• Tara Van Ho, COVID-19 Symposium: A Time to Kill ‘Business as Usual’–Centering Human Rights in a Frustrated Economy, OpinioJuris, Part I , Part II (Apr. 2, 2020).

Right to health

• Tim Fish Hodgson and Ian Seiderman, COVID-19 Symposium: COVID-19 Responses and State Obligations Concerning the Right to Health, OpinioJuris (Apr. 1, 2020) available at http://opiniojuris.org/2020/04/01/covid-19-symposium-covid-19-responses-and-state-obligations-concerning-the-right-to-health-part-1/.

• Lisa Forman, The Evolution of the Right to Health in the Shadow of COVID-19, Health and Human Rights Journal (Apr. 1, 2020), available at https://www.hhrjournal.org/2020/04/the-evolution-of-the-right-to-health-in-the-shadow-of-covid-19/

• UNAIDS, Rights in the time of COVID-19: lessons from HIV for an effective, community-led response (Mar. 20, 2020), available at https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/pressreleaseandstatementarchive/2020/march/20200320_human-rights-approach-covid-19

Labor rights

• Fair Labor Association, Protecting Workers During and After the Global Pandemic (Apr. 6, 2020), available at https://www.fairlabor.org/report/protecting-workers-during-and-after-global-pandemic.

• Steven Greenhouse, Is Your Grocery Delivery Worth a Worker’s Life?, The New York Times  (Mar. 20, 2020), available at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/opinion/coronavirus-worker-strike.html.

• Steven Greenhouse, The Faces of a New Union Movement, New Yorker (Feb. 28, 2020,) available at https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/the-faces-of-a-new-union-movement.

On a surge in organizing young workers, especially those in industries with little or no tradition of unions.

• Steven Greenhouse, How One Local Union Is Doubling Wages for America’s Airport Workers, The American Prospect (Apr. 2, 2020) available at https://prospect.org/labor/local-union-doubling-wages-for-america-airport-workers/.

On one of the biggest, most successful private sector organizing campaigns
in years—15,000 airport workers.

• Andy Hall, Don’t forget the people behind the PPE – migrant workers meeting the surge in demand for medical gloves, The Telegraph (Apr. 17, 2020), available at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/dont-forget-people-behind-ppe-migrant-workersmeeting-surge/.

• Rachel Abrams and Jessica Silver-Greenberg, ‘Terrified’ Delivery Workers are Going to Work Sick, The New York Times (Mar. 21, 2020) available at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/21/business/coronavirus-ups-fedex-xpo-workers.html.

• Christian Davenport, Abha Bhattarai and Jena McGregor, As coronavirus spreads, so do reports of companies mistreating workers, The Washington Post (Mar. 31, 2020) available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/03/31/worker-retaliation-mistreatment-coronavirus/.

• Meagan Day, Amazon Is a Breeding Ground: AN INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTIAN SMALLS, Jacobin (Mar. 29, 2020) available at https://jacobinmag.com/2020/03/amazon-warehouse-staten-island-strike-coronavirus.

An interview with the Amazon worker who led the walkout at Amazon’s Staten
Island warehouse. (Amazon fired him immediately after the walkout.)

• Julia Carrie Wong, Amazon execs labeled fired worker ‘not smart or articulate’ in leaked PR notes, The Guardian (Apr 2, 2020) available at https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/02/amazon-chris-smalls-smart-articulate-leaked-memo.

Civil and political rights

• ECPAT USA, A Guide to Online Safety During The COVID-19 Outbreak, available at https://www.ecpatusa.org/onlinesafetytips

• Human Rights Watch et al, Joint Civil Society Statement: States use of digital surveillance technologies to fight pandemic must respect human rights (Apr. 2, 2020), available at https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/02/joint-civil-society-statement-states-use-digital-surveillance-technologies-fight#

• International Crisis Group, COVID-19 and Conflict: Seven Trends to Watch (Mar. 24, 2020) available at https://www.crisisgroup.org/global/sb4-covid-19-and-conflict-seven-trends-watch.

• UN Experts, COVID-19: States should not abuse emergency measures to suppress human rights – UN experts (Mar. 16, 2020), available at https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25722

• Clément Voule, UN expert on the rights to freedoms of peaceful assembly and of association, States responses to Covid-19 threat should not halt freedoms of assembly and association ( Apr. 14, 2020), available at https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25788&LangID=E.

Right to Education

• UNESCO – COVID-19 Response

Right to Food

• International Economic Law (IEL) Collective, Conversation #5 with Luis Eslava, Michael Fakhri (UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food), Clair Gammage, and Annamaria La Chimia, COVID-19 & the Right to Food (Apr. 27, 2020) available at https://youtu.be/AG-791H-60k.

Freedom of the Press

• Reporters Without Borders, 2020 World Press Freedom Index in the Time of Coronavirus (Apr. 20, 2020), available at https://rsf.org/en/news/index-time-coronavirus.

Sector-specific Responses

Healthcare

• Zachary Brennan, Remdesivir helps coronavirus patients — but at what cost?, Politico (May 6, 2020), available at: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/06/remdesivir-helps-coronavirus-patients-but-at-what-cost-240230.

Apparel

• Clean Clothes Campaign, Garment Workers and the Pandemic, available at https://cleanclothes.org/campaigns/covid-19.

• Michael Posner, Responsible Fashion: Why Global Brands Must Help Workers in India, The Quint (May 6, 2020), available at https://www.thequint.com/voices/opinion/fashion-brands-america-europe-workers-india-distress-coronavirus.

Retail

• Jack Katzanek, Coronavirus Exposes Sick Leave Gap for Retail, Restaurant Workers, Press-Enterprise (Mar. 17, 2020), available at https://www.pe.com/2020/03/17/coronavirus-exposes-sick-leave-gap-for-retail-restaurant-workers/.

• Oxfam, Exposed: How US supermarkets are failing their workers in a global pandemic (Jun. 24, 2020), available at https://assets.oxfamamerica.org/media/documents/Exposed-How-US-supermarkets-are-failing-their-workers-in-a-global-pandemic.pdf.

Farmworkers

• Miriam Jordan, Farmworkers, Mostly Undocumented, Become ‘Essential’ During Pandemic, The New York Times (Apr. 2, 2020) available at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/us/coronavirus-undocumented-immigrant-farmworkers-agriculture.html.

• Andrea Castillo, Farmworkers face coronavirus risk: ‘You can’t pick strawberries over Zoom’, Los Angeles Times (Apr. 1, 2020), available at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-01/california-farmworkers-coronavirus.

Finance

• Hugh Leask, New BlackRock research points to ESG resilience during coronavirus downturn, HedgeWeek (May 19, 2020), available at  https://www.hedgeweek.com/2020/05/19/285741/new-blackrock-research-points-esg-resilience-during-coronavirus-downturn.

Technology

• Center for Democracy & Technology, Statement Regarding Use of Data to Fight COVID-19 (Apr. 30, 2020), available at https://cdt.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/CDT-Statement-Regarding-Use-of-Data-to-Fight-COVID-19.pdf.

• Jessica Davis, COVID-19 Contact Tracing Apps Spotlight Privacy, Security Rights, Health ITSecurity (May 20, 2020), available at https://healthitsecurity.com/news/covid-19-contact-tracing-apps-spotlight-privacy-security-rights.

• Kirsten Grind, Robert McMillan and Anna Wilde Mathews, To Track Virus, Governments Weigh Surveillance Tools That Push Privacy Limits, The Wall Street Journal (Mar. 17, 2020), available at https://www.wsj.com/articles/to-track-virus-governments-weigh-surveillance-tools-that-push-privacy-limits-11584479841.

• Leo Kelian, Coronavirus: First Google/Apple-based contact-tracing app launched, BBC (May 26, 2020), available at https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52807635.

• OneZero, We Mapped How the Coronavirus Is Driving New Surveillance Programs Around the World (Apr. 9, 2020), available at https://onezero.medium.com/the-pandemic-is-a-trojan-horse-for-surveillance-programs-around-the-world-887fa6f12ec9.

Education

• Nicholas Casey, College Made Them Feel Equal. The Virus Exposed How Unequal Their Lives Are, The New York Times (Apr. 4, 2020), available at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/04/us/politics/coronavirus-zoom-college-classes.html.

• Chronicle of Higher Education, Here’s a List of Colleges’ Plans for Reopening in the Fall (regularly updated), available at https://www.chronicle.com/article/Here-s-a-List-of-Colleges-/248626.

• Joy Connolly, We Need to Rethink What Counts for Tenure Now, Inside Higher Ed (Apr. 9, 2020), available at https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2020/04/09/covid-19-demands-reconsideration-tenure-requirements-going-forward-opinion

• Anthony P. Monaco, Tufts is prepared to house patients during the coronavirus outbreak, other colleges and universities should too, Boston Globe (Apr. 1, 2020), available at https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/18/opinion/higher-educations-role-fighting-covid-19/.

• Valerie Strauss, Many colleges are bringing students back to campus this fall. Why some faculty are very concerned., The Washington Post (Jun 16, 2020), available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/06/16/many-colleges-are-bringing-students-back-campus-this-fall-why-some-faculty-are-very-concerned/.

• Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum, Resources for Teaching Classes Remotely.

Videos

• Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute, COVID-19: Advancing Rights and Justice During a Pandemic, Virtual Events Series (various), links to future events and recordings of past events available at https://www.law.columbia.edu/human-rights-institute/speakers-events/covid-19.

• International Economic Law (IEL) Collective, Conversation #5 with Luis Eslava, Michael Fakhri (UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food), Clair Gammage, and Annamaria La Chimia, COVID-19 & the Right to Food (Apr. 27, 2020) available at https://youtu.be/AG-791H-60k.

Exercises

• Model Diplomacy, Pop-up Cases, The Aftermath of the Pandemic: 1. Global Recession Recovery; 2. Preparing for the Next Pandemic (Apr. 9, 2020).

[*]This bibliography may be cited as:

“Teaching Resources:  Human Rights and the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Teaching Business and Human Rights Handbook (Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum, 2020), https://teachbhr.org/resources/teaching-bhr-handbook/teaching-notes/human-rights-and-the-covid-19-pandemic/teaching-resources/.

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[1] This bibliography is edited and updated by Anthony Ewing, Co-Director, Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum and Lecturer, Columbia Law School.

Contributors include: Meg Roggensack, Co-Director, Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum and Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University Law School; Joanne Bauer, Adjunct Professor, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University; Jamie O’Connell, Lecturer in Residence, Stanford Law School; Nina Gardner, Adjunct Professor, John Hopkins SAIS; Elizabeth Umlas, Lecturer, University of Fribourg; Alan Franklin, Academic Advisor, Athabasca University; and Carla Martini, LLM candidate, Columbia Law School.