Guest editorial

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHRH-09-2022-213
• Published date: 11 August 2022
• Date: 11 August 2022
• Pages: 321-323
• Subject Matter: Health & social care,Vulnerable groups,Inequalities & diverse/minority groups,Sociology,Race & ethnic studies,Minorities,Multiculturalism,Racial identity,Work,economy & organizations
• Author: Theo Gavrielides

Guest editorial

Theo Gavrielides

It is not just about health: the human rights implications of COVID-19

Welcome to a new Special Issue of the International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare

(IJHRH). We are now in a position to look back and reflect on our governments’ responses

during the world pandemic. At the time of writing, across the world, there have been

556,524,032 COVID-19 casesout of which 6,364,661 resulted in death. These numbers can

only be compared to the deathsthat followed the First World War (20 million) and the Second

World War (40 million). But as the title of this Special Issue indicates, the consequences of

COVID-19 did not just involve our health and lives. In fact, its human rightsimplications were

not only prominent during the pandemic but alsoare expected to continue for many years to

come.

This Special Issue bringstogether seven original papers that are based on new researchthat

was conducted across different geographical locations to expose and understand the

human rights implicationsof COVID-19. Human rights law and policy are not static concepts

and it is only through new evidences, experiences, mistakes and good case studies that we

can strengthen them for the future.I have always argued that human rights are first for those

who cannot speak for themselves,the oppressed and the less fortunate. Theyare, of course,

for everyone andare by default standards that are simply attachedto our humanity. However,

this Special Issue points out that groups who are faced with socio-economic challenges, or

who may belong to vulnerablegroups have suffered the most during andafter the pandemic.

This is a global fact and a failureof existing human rights international law. Our journal aims to

expose failures in humanrights in health care, but also propose evidence-basedsolutions for

governments and practitioners. I am therefore very pleased that we can publish this timely

and much needed SpecialIssue.

Starting with “Human rights violations during the COVID-19 pandemic”, it analyses

international human rights law in the context of managing the COVID-19 crisis. The authors

identify several human rights violations during the COVID-19 outbreak. They claim that the

pandemic has shown the ugly fractures in health-care systems across the world including

health inequities, racism anddiscrimination. The paper argues that governments need to be

more prepared to facenew health and reflect on current social reality.

Moving onto “COVID-19 pandemic and future global catastrophic risks as a challenge for

health-care ethics”,it looks at the challenges on medical resources allocation and the duty to

treat. This paper suggests that there are good reasons to rethink our health-care ethics for

future global catastrophic risks. The authors argue that human enhancement should be

studied in the context of discriminationand access to health care. Furthermore, it claims that

the scientific community shouldstudy the concept of assisted dying which could be applied

for those survivors who have no chance of obtaining medical care. Such criteria and

concepts as cost-benefit analysis,the ethics of quality of life, autonomy of patients and duty

of medical personnelshould be considered. Amongst other things, the authors show thatany

future existential biggercatastrophe may require new guidelines for the allocationof medical

resources. The idea of assisted dying is considered as a hypothetical scenario. This is

analysed as an official protocol for health-care ethics and resources allocation policy in the

case of emergency situations.Possibly more controversial idea discussed in this paperis an

idea of assisted dying for those who cannot receiverequired medical help. This controversial

Theo Gavrielides is based

at Restorative Justice for All

(RJ4All) International

Institute, London, UK.

DOI 10.1108/IJHRH-09-2022-213 VOL. 15 NO. 4 2022, pp. 321-323, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2056-4902 jINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN HEALTHCARE jPAGE 321