The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped life across the world, placing people at risk as our responses to it alter not only health and wellbeing but also governance, economies, social relations, and our interaction with the natural environment. This volume draws globally recognized human rights scholars and practitioners into dialogue over the costs and consequences of the pandemic. With insights and data from fields as diverse as medicine, anthropology, political science, social work, business, and law, these contributors help us make sense of the pandemic’s ongoing effects and its potential impact on future systems and processes. Drawn from two special issues of The Journal of Human Rights—one published within eight months of the first lockdowns, the other published almost two years into the pandemic—this book offers one of the most comprehensive collections of such research available. It will be of interest to researchers and advanced students of Politics, Sociology, Social Work, Economics, Anthropology, Social and Political Geography, and Public Policy.

COVID-19 has become one of the most severe issues dominating discussions on the agendas of states globally, and across the African continent, since its emergence in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic has regrettably brought into sharp focus the continued multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination faced by women and girls in Africa because of their intersecting identities. Yet, paradoxically, although African women are disproportionately affected by the crisis, they are largely invisible in the responses. Several African states and governments have taken different policy measures in response to the pandemic. These responses have taken different dimensions, including shutting down economies, imposition of lockdowns, coercive quarantine measures with police enforcement and criminal consequences for offenders violating these rules. Unfortunately, these responses have reinforced and amplified women’s disproportionate disadvantage and gender inequalities in Africa. Against this backdrop, this book asks the intersectional question about women’s experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. Applying an intersectional human rights lens involves questioning how the intersecting identities that African women embody affect their experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2020, the African Human Rights Law Journal (AHRLJ or Journal) celebrates 20 years since it first was published. The AHRLJ is the only peer-reviewed journal focused on human rights-related topics of relevance to Africa, Africans and scholars of Africa. It is a time for celebration. Since 2001, two issues of the AHRLJ have appeared every year. Initially published by Juta, in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2013 it became as an open-access journal published by the Pretoria University Law Press (PULP). PULP is a non-profit open-access publisher focused on advancing African scholarship. The AHRLJ contains peer-reviewed articles and ‘recent developments’, discussing the latest court decisions and legal developments in the African Union (AU) and regional economic communities. It contains brief discussions of recently-published books. With a total of 517 contributions in 40 issues (436 articles and 81 ‘recent developments’; not counting ‘book reviews’), on average the AHRLJ contains around 13 contributions per issue. The AHRLJ is accredited with the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS) and the South African Department of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, and appears in a number of open access portals, including AfricanLii, the Directory of Open Access Journals and SciELO. Over the 20 years of its existence, many significant articles appeared in the AHRLJ. According to Google Scholar the mostcited articles that have appeared in the Journal over this period are (i) T Metz ‘Ubuntu as a moral theory and human rights in South Africa’ (2011) 11 African Human Rights Law Journal 532-559 (with 273 citations); (ii) D Cornell and K van Marle ‘Exploring ubuntu: Tentative reflections’ (2005) 5 African Human Rights Law Journal 195- 220 (with 97 citations); (iii) S Tamale ‘Exploring the contours of African sexualities: Religion, law and power’ (2014) 14 African Human Rights Law Journal 150-177 (with 85 citations); K Kindiki ‘The normative and institutional framework of the African Union relating to the protection of human rights and the maintenance of international peace and security: A critical appraisal’ (2003) 3 African Human Rights Law Journal 97-117 (with 59 citations); and T Kaime ‘The Convention on the Rights of the Child and the cultural legitimacy of children’s rights in Africa: Some reflections’ (2005) 5 African Human Rights Law Journal 221-238) (with 54 citations). This occasion allows some perspective on the role that the Journal has played over the past 20 years. It is fair to say that the AHRLJ contributed towards strengthening indigenous African scholarship, in general, and human rights-related themes, specifically. Before the Journal there was no academic ‘outlet’ devoted to human rights in the broader African context. Both in quantity and in quality the Journal has left its mark on the landscape of scholarly journals. The AHRLJ has provided a forum for African voices, including those that needed to be ‘fine-tuned’. Different from many other peerreviewed journals, the AHRLJ has seen it as its responsibility to nurture emerging but not yet fully-flourishing talent. This approach allowed younger and emerging scholars to be guided to sharpen their skills and find their scholarly voices. The AHRLJ has evolved in tandem with the African regional human rights system, in a dialogic relationship characterised by constructive criticism. When the Journal was first published in 2001, the Protocol on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Court Protocol) was not yet in force. Over the years the Journal tracked the evolution of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Court) from a faltering start, through a phase when it increasingly expressed itself in an emerging jurisprudence, to the current situation of push-back by states signalled by the withdrawal by four states of their acceptance of the Court’s direct individual access jurisdiction. The same is largely true for the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (African Children’s Committee). It was in 2001 that the AU elected the first members of this Committee. It first met in 2002, and its first decade or so was lackluster. The Committee examined its first state report only in November 2008, and decided its first communication in March 2011. Articles by authors such as Mezmur and Sloth-Nielsen, who also served as members of the Committee, and Lloyd, placed the spotlight on the work of the Committee. Initially, these articles primarily served to describe and provide information that otherwise was largely inaccessible, but over time they increasingly provided a critical gaze and contributed to the constructive evolution of the Committee’s exercise of its mandate. By 2011 the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission) was already quite well established, but it also underwent significant growth over the subsequent 20-year period. Numerous articles in the Journal trace and analyse aspects of this evolution. Contributions in the Journal also cover most of the AU human rights treaties and soft law standards. A number of issues contain a ‘special focus’ section dealing with a thematic issue of particular relevance or concern, such as the focus on the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women (2006 no 1); ‘30 years of the African Charter’ (2011 no 2); and ‘sexual and reproductive rights and the African Women’s Protocol’ (2014 no 2). The scope of the Journal extends beyond the supranational dimension of human rights. Over the years many contributions explored aspects of the domestic human rights situation in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. From time to time the specific focus sections also veered towards domestic human rights protection. See for instance the focus on 20 years of the South African Constitution (2014 no 2); on ‘adolescent sexual and reproductive rights in the African region’ (2017 no 2); on ‘the rule of law in sub-Saharan Africa’ (2018 no 1); and on ‘dignity taking and dignity restorations’ (2018 no 2).

This book is a novel contribution to academic discourses on the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis and how it has impacted societies globally. It proffers an overview on the social development and political measures, from both the Global North and Global South, to prevent COVID-19's spread. It illuminates major social, political and economic challenges that already existed in different contexts and which are also currently being amplified by COVID-19. Curiously, this global pandemic has opened spaces for different actors, across the globe, to begin to fundamentally question and challenge the hegemony of the Global North, which sometimes is evident in social work. Linked to the foregoing and while reflecting beyond the pandemic and into the future, the book proposes that social work must become more political at all levels, and strive to transform societies, global social development efforts, and economic and health systems. This contributed volume of 38 chapters discusses and analyses ethical, social, sociological, social work and social development issues that complement and enrich available literature in the socio-political, economics, public health, medical ethics and political science. It provides various case studies which should enable readers to gain insights into how countries have responded to the pandemic and learn how COVID-19 negatively impacted countries in different parts of the world. This book also provides a platform for the articulation of neglected and marginalized voices, such as those of indigenous populations, the poor, or oppressed. The chapters are grouped according to three main themes as they relate to research on the COVID-19 pandemic and social work in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America: Analysis: Social Issues and the COVID-19 Pandemic Strategies and Responses in Social Work: Globally and Locally Outlook: Looking Ahead Beyond the Pandemic Intended to engage a global, diverse and interdisciplinary audience, The Coronavirus Crisis and Challenges to Social Development is a timely and relevant resource for academics, students and researchers in inter alia Social Work, Philosophy, Sociology, Economics, and Development Studies.

This collection draws upon a range of thematic and regional case studies and uses the right to health as a normative framework to explore the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. Drawing lessons from across the continent, the book discusses the challenges faced by African states seeking to ensure the availability, accessibility, and quality of health care in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the volume explores the impact of the pandemic on the right to health of vulnerable and marginalized groups, such as women, children, elderly persons with disabilities, refugees and asylum seekers, and people from disadvantaged communities. Due to the poor funding of the healthcare systems, access to health-related services was limited to these groups in many African countries, thereby leading to avoidable COVID-19-related deaths through shortages of vital supplies, including diagnostic tests, ventilators, and oxygen cylinders. Chapters in the volume also explore the contentious issues of vaccine mandates, equity, resource allocation, and the rights of healthcare providers during the pandemic. This collection will be of interest to students of public health, human rights, and the social sciences, as well as to academics and policymakers with an interest in the nexus between the COVID-19 pandemic and public health policy in Africa.

This edited volume interrogates the intersection between viral pandemics, transnational migration and the politics of belonging in South Africa during COVID-19. The chapters draw on theoretical conceptions such as biopolitics, necropolitics, xenophobio/afrophobia and autochthonous citizenship to understand how South Africa has responded to the devastating effects of COVID-19 and the implications for the lives and livelihoods of African migrants. The book is written against the backdrop of deepening socioeconomic and political problems in South Africa, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic, exclusionary response strategies employed by the government and populist discourses about the dangers of hosting an increasing population of African migrants. Drawing on the experiences of migrants from Cameroon, DRC, Nigeria, Somalia and Zimbabwe, this book explores the challenges of these diaspora communities during lockdowns, their survival strategies and the effects on their social existence during and post the pandemic. From these case studies, we are reminded about the paradoxes of belonging and how COVID-19 continues to reveal different forms of global inequalities. They also remind us about the burdens of displacement and emplacement and how they are repeatedly politicised in South Africa, as the government grapples with endemic socioeconomic and political problems. The conclusion of the book examines the implications of COVID-19 for migration across the African continent and particularly for South Africa, as we witness new waves of xenophobic/afrophobic vigilantism driven by Operation Dudula.

This timely collection brings together original explorations of the COVID-19 pandemic and its wide-ranging, global effects on human rights. The contributors argue that a human rights perspective is necessary to understand the pervasive consequences of the crisis, while focusing attention on those being left behind and providing a necessary framework for the effort to 'build back better'. Expert contributors to this volume address interconnections between the COVID-19 crisis and human rights to equality and non-discrimination, including historical responses to pandemics, populism and authoritarianism, and the rights to health, information, water and the environment. Highlighting the dangerous potential for derogations from human rights, authors further scrutinize the human rights compliance of new legislation and policies in relation to issues such as privacy, protection of persons with disabilities, freedom of expression, and access to medicines. Acknowledging the pandemic as a defining moment for human rights, the volume proposes a post-crisis human rights agenda to engage civil society and government at all levels in concrete measures to roll back increasing inequality. With rich examples, new thinking, and provocative analyses of human rights, COVID-19, pandemics, crises, and inequality, this book will be of key interest to scholars, students, and practitioners in all areas of human rights, global governance, and public health, as well as others who are ready to embark on an exploration of these complex challenges.

This book explores the effect of the pandemic on human rights; civil and political rights (CPR); economic, social, and cultural rights (ESCR); and freedoms around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic radically changed many aspects of the lives of individuals and entire societies. This crisis and the unprecedented experience required extraordinary solutions, regulations, and rapid responses from decision-makers to limit the spread of the disease and protect societies. To this end, during this period, many countries chose to impose states of emergency, resulting in the granting of extraordinary powers to the executive. This has sometimes been a very convenient pretext for introducing various types of restrictions, oppressive surveillance, and other legal arrangements that can be qualified as human rights violations. The authors make a scholarly summary of this period, identifying possible rights violations — but above all — recommendations for the future. This crisis has shown how important it is to have universal, equitable health and social protection systems that cover all community members equally and without discrimination, and the authors remodel the concept of "human rights" and "human needs". The book covers varied examples from lockdowns to vaccination to information control, across Spain, Poland, South Africa and Uganda, the Czech Republic, Belarus and Ukraine, and Russia. This book will appeal to higher-level students and scholars of law, political science, and international relations and will also be helpful for public policymakers at national and international levels.

Governing the Crisis: Law, Human Rights and COVID-19 is a collection of essays by an interdisciplinary group of experts from around the world who look at different human rights issues which have emerged as relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic. The topics cover a range of issues in different countries, for example, tracing apps, digitalization, privacy, priority setting in health care, refugees, cruise ships or risks faced by children. Other chapters investigate the specific government responses in a number of countries. In addition, topics of wider legal interest are investigated, such as the role of constitutional courts, federalism and the concept of the state of emergency. Prof. Dr. Stefan Kirchner, MJI, is Research Professor of Arctic Law and the head of the Arctic Governance Research Group at the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi, Finland.