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GI-ESCR Blog series

The COVID-19 Pandemic And Its Impact On Economic, Social And Cultural Rights

Post-pandemic futures, hope, and human rights

This blog post was first published in Open Global Rights. You may find the original article HERE.

By César Rodríguez-Garavito

In an article published around the time that the coronavirus was declared a pandemic, Indian writer and activist Arundhati Roy reminded us that “historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.”

The key word here is imagine. If human rights actors are to help shape the post-pandemic world, they need to start imagining it now—proposing a long-term vision of what it should look like and working backwards from it to influence the epochal decisions that are being made right now. As sociologists have shown, historical critical junctures like the present create openings for new visions. The pandemic surfaces the dysfunctionalities of the old normal: the shocking inequalities, the similarities with other existential threats like climate change, the technologically enhanced polarization that populist authoritarians seek to exploit. It also shakes up, at least for a time, the conventional ideas that have sustained the status quo: the belief that homo sapiens are separate from and superior over other species; the populist narrative that pits “us” against “them”; the neoliberal story that “there is no such thing as society,” only individuals; the faith that all social problems have a technological fix under surveillance capitalism. Those ideas are harder to sustain when a virus brings the human species to a halt, crosses all the barriers between “us” and “them,” prompts society-wide behaviors like lockdowns that save thousands of lives, and exposes the need for but also the perils of touchless digital technologies.

Although the opportunity is there, imagining rights-based post-pandemic futures is not an easy task. Physical distancing, economic distress and health concerns trigger fear, which naturally favors an anxious focus on the present and a longing for the past. As some governments and corporate actors take the offensive and use the pandemic to push through anti-rights norms and initiatives, human rights actors double down on their defensive strategies and narratives. Several articles on COVID-19 that we have published in OpenGlobalRights show that this work is essential for the protection of vulnerable communities and individuals. However, an exclusively reactive, backward-looking approach risks leaving the human rights movement even further on the defensive than it was before the pandemic. Therefore, it needs to be complemented by a forward-looking, proposal-oriented response to the current context.

This is the reason behind the new OGR series, Imagining Our Post-Pandemic Futures. Taking a page from other fields like journalism, we are launching a global conversation about actionable human rights ideas and innovative practices that hold out the prospect for influencing post-pandemic scenarios. Some proposals in this Up Close series build on the legacy of the human rights movement, such as the important work on socio-economic rights—from health to food to work to housing—that global South organizations have led for several decades and will be essential for any transition to more equitable economies after COVID-19. Other articles in this series challenge human rights conventions and push their boundaries by inviting researchers and practitioners to learn from other fields such as public health, and to engage with issues that have been overlooked, such as human rights responsibilities and the need for the movement to tackle structural issues such as economic inequality, global warming, and technological disruption head on. Yet other articles reflect on ways to effectively use online mobilization and collaboration tactics at a moment when in-person meetings and mass protests are not viable.

In addition to analyzing and imagining new ways of doing human rights, this series explores new ways of talking about them. Building on OGR’s prior series on hope-based narratives, we will include articles and practical guides about narratives that inspire forward-looking, collaborative action in response to the fear-based, crisis-centered frames that tends to dominate public discussions on human rights during the pandemic. After all, as Yuval Harari has provocatively put it, “the only place rights exist is in the stories that humans tell each other… [The human rights story] contributed to the happiness and welfare of humanity probably more than any other story. Yet it is still a dogma.” In other words, it is a story whose power depends on being credible and resonant to contemporary and future human beings in light of the radically new circumstances we now must live. 

This OGR series turns the provocation into a question: what new frames and narratives can make the human rights story credible and inspiring to human beings facing a pandemic and the prospect of an uninhabitable planet and technological dystopias? Contributors to this series offer a wealth of responses drawn from ongoing efforts by human rights actors around the world, from women’s rights organizations in India to community organizers in South Africa to a global virtual movement to “free the vaccine” for COVID-19.

Even when faced with an unprecedented challenge from a tireless virus aided by human inequities, there is nothing inevitable about the demise of old ideas and practices. Optimism about the future is not enough. What is needed is well-founded, actionable hope of the type that transpires in the contributions to this series. As rabbi Jonathan Sacks has put it, “optimism is the belief that the world is changing for the better; hope is the belief that, together, we can make the world better.” Hope is optimism with a plan.

C?sar Rodr?guez-Garavito is the Editor-in-Chief of OpenGlobalRights and Visiting Clinical Professor at NYU School of Law.

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Climate and Environmental Justice

We have advanced rights-based and gender-transformative transition frameworks through research that centres the lived experiences of women and marginalised communities on the frontlines of extractive energy policies, promoting climate and energy frameworks attentive to the social and care-related impacts of transition pathways. We have developed a clear vision for a gender-just transition, firmly rooted in gender and human rights norms, establishing both the legal basis and the direction for the transformative changes our planet and societies urgently need. In particular, the ‘Guiding Principles for Gender Equality and Human Rights in the Energy Transition’, a collective effort built through online consultations, an in-person workshop and multiple rounds of revision with activists, practitioners and experts from around the world, outline a transformative vision for reshaping global energy systems through a human rights and gender equality lens.

Our work recognises that the climate emergency is both an existential threat and an opportunity to reimagine societies built on social, gender, economic and environmental justice. We ground our advocacy in feminist and intersectional principles, prioritising the agency and perspectives of communities in the Global South who have contributed the least to the climate emergency yet face its most devastating consequences. Central to our approach is the understanding that energy is not merely a commodity but a fundamental human right; essential for dignity, health, education, work and the realisation of countless other rights. We challenge approaches to the energy transition that risk replicating the harmful patterns of fossil fuel extraction and, instead, advocate for transformative policies that ensure human rights and gender equality as central to building climate-resilient societies rooted in dignity, justice and planetary well-being.

What's next?

We will continue to challenge approaches that treat energy transition as merely a technical shift, instead positioning it as an opportunity to reimagine economies and societies rooted in dignity for all, with particular attention to communities in the Global South who have contributed least to the climate emergency yet are most exposed to its worst effects.

We will connect community-level evidence and the lived experiences of those on the frontlines of extractive policies to national reform and global norm-setting, breaking down silos between human rights, gender, and climate movements, and advancing a shared vision that recognises just transitions as not only fundamental to achieving climate-resilient and sustainable societies, but as transformative pathways that advance social and gender equality, redistribute power and resources equitably, and ensure that energy systems serve the public good rather than profit.

We will mainstream rights-based and genderjust transition priorities in key multilateral spaces (particularly, within the Just Transition Work Programme and the to-be-developed Just Transition Mechanism, within the UNFCCC) to guarantee that just transitions are advanced at all levels.

We will also translate our work, through strategic advocacy, into at least two concrete policy wins, whether promoted, adopted, implemented, or scaled, in priority countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, or Kenya), ensuring these policies align with human rights standards, centre gender equality, and reflect the needs and views of affected communities.

We will build momentum for the progressive recognition of the right to sustainable energy to shift dominant narratives away from purely extractive solutions that sideline gendered impacts, community participation, and Global South perspectives.

Economic Justice and Climate Finance

Our work has transformed the global discussion on fiscal policy in a more just, emancipatory and sustainable direction. Our approach has combined both high-level, expert contributions within decisionmaking circles, with bold, impactful work on narrative change with the general public.

We have been instrumental in the inclusion of human rights as a guiding principle of the future United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, a multilateral instrument with the potential of raising approx. USD 492 billion per year in public revenues currently foregone to global tax abuse. In the process leading to the ‘Compromiso de Sevilla’ decided at FfD4, we proposed and succeeded in creating a specific human rights workstream within the Civil Society Financing for Development Mechanism, which was critical to ensure that explicit commitments on the matter were included in the negotiating outcome. In a context of cutbacks in multilateral institutions, we have amplified the capacities of technical experts, providing rigorous technical support and leveraging our influence to ensure the enactments of groundbreaking standard-setting instruments, such as the 2025 UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Statement on Fiscal Policy and Human Rights, and the first ex oficio hearing on the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights on Fiscal and Economic Policies to Address Poverty and Structural Inequality, leading to an upcoming thematic resolution on the matter. We have also bridged the silos between multilateral tax discussions and climate finance debates, promoting ambitious financing commitments to increase international and domestic resource mobilisation during COP 28, 29 and 30.

At the regional level, our engagement with fiscal cooperation platforms such as the Platform for Fiscal Cooperation of Latin America and the Caribbean (PTLAC), where we are member of its Civil Society Consultative Council, and the African Anti-IFFs Policy Tracker, for which we participated in the pilot mission in Ivory Coast together with Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), have been critical in cementing a growing engagement between tax administrations and ministries of finance with international legal experts, exploring actionable and transformative initiatives, such as the taxation of high-net-worth individuals, beneficial ownership registries and corporate countryby-country reports, to be implemented at the international level.

At the local level, our interventions in fiscal reform debates in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Nigeria have contributed to shaping legislative outcomes in a more progressive, rights-compliant direction.

As for our leadership in narrative change, we have a measurable track record in delivering tailored, innovative campaigns which have decisively expanded economic justice constituencies by appealing to a broader tent. In Latin America and the Caribbean, we created the ‘Date Cuenta’ campaign, coordinating over 40 organisations across civil society to deliver plain language, innovative messaging connecting progressive fiscal reforms to the financing of health, education and social protection. ‘Date Cuenta’ generated over 55 original campaign messages that were tailored to the realities of seven priority countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Honduras) and disseminated in Spanish, Portuguese and English. In doing so, we convened more than 65 online co-creation workshops with partners, coordinating a unified communications strategy which combined digital outreach, press and media coverage, and collaboration with influencers. Ultimately, ‘Date Cuenta’ resulted in more than 60,000 interactions on social media, coverage in major regional and international media outlets, including El País, Deutsche Welle, Bloomberg and France 24, and the participation of at least 63 social media influencers through 58 dedicated publications. In collaboration with Fundación Gabo and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, we also organised a two-day workshop in Bogota with 20 journalists from 13 countries, building a regional network trained in a human rights-based approach to fiscal policy that has since generated published media coverage on outlets such as La Diaria, Ciper, El Diario Ar and Milenio. Through ‘Date Cuenta’ and our regional advocacy, we strengthened civil society engagement in key processes, including the Financing for Development track and FfD4, co-organised highlevel dialogues with states and civil society from Latin America and Africa.

What's next?

We will shape the UN Tax Convention and its Protocols so they embed human rights principles, and we will stay engaged through follow-up processes (including the expected Conference of the Parties) to support effective implementation. We will keep linking tax and climate finance so that new resources mobilised through fiscal cooperation are channelled to adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage, in line with UNFCCC commitments.

Public Services for Care Societies

We have translated participatory research into accountability and policy outcomes.

In Ivory Coast, our work with Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits Humains and affected communities since 2023 exposed how privatisation and lack of accountability restrict access to quality healthcare. It contributed to the closure of 1,022 illegal private health centres, an executive instrument strengthening the regulation of private hospitals across the country, and the creation of a permanent complaints management committee in healthcare through a bylaw issued by the prefect of Gagnoa. Partners engaged through this process also advanced concrete improvements at facility level: members of the Gagnoa Midwives Association who took part in the participatory action research pooled resources to renovate the neonatal unit of the Regional Hospital, and the Director of the Gagnoa General Hospital launched an action plan to expand services and improve patient reception, with the facility receiving the award for best hospital in the country in 2025.

In Kenya, our research with the Mathare Education Taskforce documented the absence of public schools and the expansion of private provision, evidencing impacts on households and caregivers and strengthening demands for free, quality public education. This work contributed to stronger community agency and collective organisation, alongside ongoing strategies ranging from communications to litigation to secure a public school in the area, some involving GI-ESCR and others led independently.

Across Africa, this work is complemented by a multi-country study examining the human rights implications of austerity in education and health, including how regressive fiscal policies, rising debt burdens and persistent underinvestment undermine the financing and delivery of public services.

In Latin America, from 29 November to 2 December 2021, over a thousand representatives from over one hundred countries, from grassroots movements, advocacy, human rights, and development organisations, feminist movements, trade unions, and other civil society organisations, met in Santiago, Chile, and virtually, to discuss the critical role of public services for our future. Following the meeting, the Santiago Declaration on Public Services was adopted to demand universal access to quality, gender-transformative and equitable public services as the foundation of a fair and just society.

We are currently advancing work on care systems, linking public services and fiscal justice through integrated research, advocacy and communications, including a regional campaign framing care as a collective responsibility requiring sustained public investment.

What's next?

In Ivory Coast, we will evaluate and strengthen the complaints management committee and position it as a replicable model for other health facilities. In Kenya, we will support the Mathare community to co-design a model public school for Mabatini and Ngei wards, grounded in human rights standards. Building on our multi-country austerity study, we will drive national advocacy on financing for education and health: advancing reforms in Ghana; launching a fiscal policy and public services financing agenda in Kenya through the CESCR process and targeted coalition work; and, in Nigeria, using the new tax acts in force since 1 January 2026 to catalyse a national accountability campaign for adequately funded, quality public services. In Latin America, we will amplify locally led care pilots across 8 countries and turn lessons into influence—advancing care policies that strengthen care organisations, protect care workers’ rights, support unpaid caregivers, include disability and family networks, and redistribute care more equitably.