Pandemics and disasters put human rights to the test. This panel investigates the role of human rights in pandemics and disasters, from preparedness to response, and from freedom of expression (information and communication) to the right to housing (quarantine, social distancing and reconstruction).

Covid-19 has demonstrated how easily human rights can slip from global health vocabulary when put to the test. Responses to natural or man-made disasters also involve rapid responses and long-term reconstruction plans in which human rights are often peripheral. Human rights can be seen as a barrier to effective action, at the same time they can make us ask questions of individual duties to society. 

 Crises situations further expose the social inequities that have long energised the human rights movement. 

Speakers will be drawn from global health, disaster management and human rights for a critical reflection on the contribution of the human rights framework in times of crisis.