Checklist for a Human Rights-Based Approach to Socio-Economic Country Responses to COVID-19

"...initial guidance to help the UN in examining whether socio-economic impact assessments, responses, and recovery plans apply a human rights-based approach, ensuring that no one will be left behind."

This checklist provides a list of potential actions, tools, and resources to ensure a human rights-based approach to socio-economic country responses to COVID-19. It was developed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Development Cooperation Office (UNDCO) as the secretariat for the United Nations Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG).

The publication is framed in the context of the socio-economic response to COVID-19 (SERF), which the UN issued in April 2020 to help countries tackle the social and economic dimensions of the pandemic, with a focus on at-risk groups. The SERF outlines that responses should aim to: protect people and planet; preserve gains across all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); ensure equality; promote transparency, accountability, participation, and collaboration; increase solidarity; and place the voice, rights, and agency of people at the centre.

The resource begins by guiding readers in undertaking a mapping of those most at risk of being left behind in the COVID-19 response. This involves asking questions such as: Have you undertaken a quick but comprehensive mapping of the at-risk groups experiencing the highest degree of socio-economic marginalisation and/or discrimination, requiring specific attention? Has a gender analysis been applied to the mapping? Have you taken into account trust between authorities and the population and among groups by ensuring inclusivity, dialogue, and grievance mechanisms?

Next, the reader is guided in the integration of international human rights norms and standards into the response. He or she is asked: Have you integrated the COVID-19 Human Rights Indicators framework in Annex I of the SERF (by examining, for example, COVID-19 related censorship, digital shutdown, violence against human rights defenders, journalists, trade unionists, medical and other experts, and whistle-blowers)?

Following a section of questions about cross-cutting elements - e.g., are mechanisms put in place to provide information to and gather timely feedback from at-risk groups in the context of COVID-19? - the remainder of the checklist is organised by the 5 streams of work that constitute the SERF:

1. Health First: Protecting Health Services and Systems During the Crisis - e.g., are affected communities involved in designing the health response and in implementing measures?
2. Protecting People: Social Protection and Basic Services - e.g., are social protection measures developed and implemented through a participatory process that respects the right of individuals to seek, receive, and impart information on all social security entitlements in a clear, accessible, and transparent manner, including for children, adolescents, youth, older persons and persons with disabilities?
3. Economic Response and Recovery: Protecting Jobs, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, and the Informal Sector Workers - are there policies to ensure that names and contact information of workers found to have been infected by COVID-19 are not revealed to the workforce or the public at large, unless the worker consents or is required by the government as per applicable laws?
4. Macroeconomic Response and Multilateral Collaboration - e.g., are loans and grants from international financial institutions (IFIs) and donors monitored, including by civil society organisations, to ensure they are used to address demonstrated needs, with a focus on those most at risk of being left behind?
5. Social Cohesion and Community Resilience - e.g., have measures been taken to protect the right to information and freedom of expression, including freedom of the press, to ensure everyone has access to accurate, clear, and evidence-based information?

The final pages of the document include lists of (with links to) various related resources.