Royal Society of Canada
POLICY BRIEFING
POLICY BRIEFING
Reconciling Civil Liberties and Public Health in the Response to COVID-19September 2020 | Colleen M. Flood, Vanessa MacDonnell, Bryan Thomas, and Kumanan Wilson
English | Français "...a dynamic, evidence-based policy approach can be fully respectful of both civil liberties and the goals of public health." The RSC has produced a Policy Briefing that examines various rights engaged by COVID-19 response strategies, including the right to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, liberty and security, and privacy. The authors emphasize the need to ensure that measures taken are supported by the best available evidence and are regularly recalibrated to avoid unnecessary interference with civil liberties, in line with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This Policy Briefing was published in connection with the RSC Task Force on COVID-19. Established by the President of the RSC in April 2020, the Task Force has a mandate to "provide evidence-informed perspectives on major societal challenges in response to and recovery from COVID-19". For other publications exploring the implications of the pandemic for social justice and human rights, see the RSC's COVID-19 Resources page on the academy's website. Relevant publications include essays on the impact of COVID-19 in racialized communities and informed perspectives on issues such as domestic violence and the impact on immigrants and indigenous communities, including indigenous women. |
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COVID-19 is the First Global Pandemic in the Digital AgeApril 2020 | Chad Gaffield
English | Français In the first publication in the RSC's COVID-19 series, RSC Past-President Chad Gaffield drew attention to challenges associated with pandemic response in an era of widespread big data, artificial intelligence, and social media. Noting that pandemics have exposed societal fault lines throughout history, Dr. Gaffield stressed the importance of harnessing digital technologies to help address-rather than entrench-societal disparities exposed and worsened by COVID-19. |
Chad Gaffield |
Additional Resources
REPORT
REPORT
COVID-19 and Human Rights: We are all in this together
April 2020
This report of the UN Secretary-General highlights ways in which human rights can guide COVID-19 response and recovery.
This report of the UN Secretary-General highlights ways in which human rights can guide COVID-19 response and recovery.
VARIOUS MEDIA
VARIOUS MEDIA
COVID-19 and its Human Rights Dimensions
العربية | 中文 | Français | русский | Español
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has created an online collection of speeches, statements, op-eds, press releases and briefings, stories, videos, infographics, social media, events and other materials to provide guidance on rights-based responses to, and recovery measures associated with, the COVID-19 public health crisis.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has created an online collection of speeches, statements, op-eds, press releases and briefings, stories, videos, infographics, social media, events and other materials to provide guidance on rights-based responses to, and recovery measures associated with, the COVID-19 public health crisis.
