Human Rights Crisis UK. Social Sciences Research Paper

Human Rights Crisis UK
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Introduction
The COVID-19 is an infectious disease identified as a new component from the family of Coronaviruses that causes respiratory infections. The infection from COVID-19 is deadly since there is still no specific treatment for the diseases other than just the management of the symptoms. The rate of death from COVID-19 has continued to rise at an alarming rate since mid-March 2020 to-date. Most of the countries have adopted the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights that guarantees people the highest possible attainable standard of physical as well as mental health. In this case, the governments are under obligation to provide effective steps in the prevention, treatment as well as control of epidemic, endemic, occupational as well as other diseases. The human right to health provides that the various health facilities, their goods, and services should be available to all in sufficient quantity, accessible to all without any hint of discrimination and at the same time affordable to everybody all over the globe. The provision also encompasses the fact that these medical services should be acceptable, meaningful, and offered in line with medical ethics that are culturally appropriate. They should also comply with the scientific appropriation and be of good quality in its entirety.[European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. . Guidelines for the use of non-pharmaceutical measures to delay and mitigate the impact of 2019-nCoV. ECDC: Stockholm; 2020.]
Perception of disorder
The Human Rights Committee general perceptions on the states of emergency as well as freedom of movement also reflected by the Siracusa Principles that was adopted by the United Nations Economic and Social Council in the year 1984, provides elaborate and authoritative guidelines on how governments should respond to restrictions on human rights for public health reasons or any other national emergency. In this case, any measure undertaken in the quest to protect the human population that limits the population’s rights and freedom must be done under the law that is necessary and proportionate. For instance, the cases on states of emergency require that they are provided on a limited duration. On the same note, the curtailment of rights needs to consider the extent of the disproportionate impact on specified populations. The governments are under obligation in line with the international human rights law to protect the rights as well as freedom of expression that includes the right to seek and be provided with appropriate information of all kinds regardless of the challenges at hand. The various permissible restrictions that pertain to freedom of expression as pertains to public health should not at any point jeopardize the rights to self.[Kalin, Walter. "The human rights dimension of natural or human-made disasters." German YB Int'l L. 55 (2012): 119.] [Alemanno, Alberto. "The European Response to COVID19. From Regulatory Emulation to Regulatory Coordination." European Journal of Risk Regulation (2020): 1-12.]
The governments are accountable as well as responsible for providing appropriate and necessary information for the purposes of protecting alongside promoting human rights including the right to health. The other core obligation of the government entails providing necessary education as well as access to information concerning the major health concerns within communities including the methods on prevention as well as control on the same. The various rights applicable should respect the different responses towards the needs of the COVID-19 and ensure the release of accurate as well as updated information concerning the virus, access to services alongside the various possible disruptions. However, the government has been said to have failed to deliver and uphold the right to freedom of expression within several countries. This encompasses the aspect of taking actions that work against the journalists as well as healthcare workers and eventually limiting the concept of providing effective communication concerning the onset of the disease. Such actions have largely undermined the level of trust associated with government actions.[Ibid]
The Chinese government from the onset of the crisis withheld crucial information concerning the coronavirus from the public and downplayed the infection rates and its severity to the global world. Their perspective of dismissing the likelihood of the diseases being transmitted from one individual to another resulted in the current crisis globally. The Chinese authorities basically cracked the whip on those who were found reporting any incidences on the epidemic on the social media platform as well as the internet. The authorities went as far as censoring and curbing any form of media reporting on the virus and its consequent results.[World Health Organization. Report of the WHO-China Joint Mission on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). [Internet]. 2020 [cited 2020 Mar 21].]
In the middle-east country, Iran, the spread of the disease gained momentum after the government authorities dealt a blow to the public trust through suppression of the anti-government protests. Consequently, the authorities in the country had to deal with the aspect of giving the public assurance on their government’s decision concerning the COVID-19 outbreak. In the midst of all the gimmicks, the government has provided inconsistent figures through the domestic media sources on the rate of infection as well as death rates. This has attracted concerns of the public on the data purporting that the government’s inconsistencies in collecting, analyzing as well as underreporting the data. The same case happened in Thailand where the public health sector, as well as the online journalist that were on the frontline in reporting the COVID-19 outbreak and underlying cases to the public, were forced to face retaliation from the rule of the law alongside intimidation from government authorities. There were also cases where media personnel were threatened with disciplinary action in the event they are found speaking about cases on severe shortage of essential medical supplies required for combating the COVID-19 pandemic.[Mbagwu, J. P. C., Obidike Blessing, I. V. Anyiam, and F. I. Omeje. "A Review: Global Pattern of Distribution of Novel Corona Virus (COVID-19)."]
However, there are exceptional cases of a few countries that chose to use open communication alongside transparency in their quest to alert the public and report the number of cases encountered. For instance, the Taiwan government took appropriate quick responsive actions by providing credible information to the public and giving daily press briefing focusing on minimizing the extent of rumors that helped in creating calm amongst the public. The same action on providing detailed statistics to the public was done by the Singapore government as well as the South Korea government publishing health data and allowing public health officials the provide reports twice a day. Such a concept helped in establishing the level of public confidence as well as promoting the level of vigilance amongst the public. The level of aggressive public campaigns concerning the better applicable public practices is key to building public confidence. This includes the practices on personal hygiene and the steps to take for the purposes of combating the spread of the virus for the public good.
Diagnosis - analyzing the causes behind the perception of COVID-19 crisis
The purpose of the lockdown in the United Kingdom focuses on basically saving and protecting lives from the rampant consequences of COVID-19, which served a very legitimate objective. Concerning the sustainability perspective, it is on point to ask whether the lockdown is likely to serve the purposes under which it is imposed. This question can only be unearthed by refining the legitimate objective as described above. Looking beyond the context of lockdown, the aim of the process should serve the purposes of saving lives that may be lost as a result of the lockdown. This is since it can only be based on speculat...