translated from Spanish: Bachelet: Covid vaccine “will not cure socioeconomic havoc”

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has acknowledged that 2020 will be a year that we will never forget “never” because of the coronavirus pandemic and has warned that the vaccine alone will not solve the impact it has had at all levels, betting on the ‘vaccine’ of human rights.
The pandemic has had “a devastating impact on countries’ economies and employment, incomes, education, health and food supplies for hundreds of millions of people,” Bachelet stressed, as well as “a huge setback in development, poverty alleviation efforts and improved situations for women and girls.”
Despite “extraordinary progress” in developing a vaccine, Bachelet has made it clear that “vaccines alone cannot resolve the pandemic or cure the damage it has caused.” Even if vaccines end in “a few months” with Covid-19, they will “not prevent or cure the socioeconomic havoc resulting from the pandemic and have helped its spread.”
However, according to the UN’s head of human rights, there is already a vaccine “for hunger, poverty, inequality” and even for climate change and many other ills facing humanity. It is, he has explained, human rights, contained in the Universal Declaration which in turn has given rise to other treaties that protect among others the rights of children or women.
“Covid-19 has highlighted our inability to defend those rights, not only because we couldn’t, but because we didn’t or decided not to,” Bachelet said.
In this regard, it referred to the lack of sufficient investment in health care in some countries or the fact that “many governments did not act quickly or as quickly as possible to stop the spread of Covid-19”. “Others refused to take it seriously, or were not fully transparent about its spread,” he said.
Not to mention names, Chile’s former president has shown surprise that “even today, some political leaders continue to downplay their impact, belittling the use of simple measures such as the use of masks and avoiding large gatherings.”
“Even some political figures still casually talk about ‘immunity from the herd’, as if the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives were a cost that can be easily borne for the sake of the common good,” he criticized, noting that “politicizing a pandemic in this way goes beyond irresponsibility, is totally reprehensible.”
Bachelet has also regretted that in some cases the response to the pandemic rather than uniting has generated “greater division” and “conspiracy and misinformation theories” have been allowed to be sown. With this, a knife has been “stuck in the heart of the most precious good, trust”, at all levels.
“If we want to achieve a better world after this calamity, as our ancestors undoubtedly did after World War II, we need to rebuild that trust among ourselves,” he warned.
According to the UN’s manager, “in the last eleven months, the poor have become impoverished and those suffering from systemic discrimination have been the most harmed.” However, “if adequate social and economic protections had been established for a much larger proportion of the world’s population (…), if we had applied the human rights vaccine, we would not be as bad as we are today.”
“Covid-19 has very clearly demonstrated that inequalities and discrimination not only harm the people directly affected, and unfairly impacted, but create shockwaves that spread throughout society,” he said.
Bachelet has denounced in particular the “devastating” impact that the pandemic has had on women “due to the horrendous increase in domestic violence around the world, and because a large proportion of women work in the informal sector and in health care.”
“If we want to recover better, women will have to play a much more important role in decision-making and prioritization,” she said, stressing that “it is no coincidence that in a world where so few countries have women leaders, several of the countries that are considered to have handled the pandemic most effectively are led by women.”
In addition, “the rights to free speech, to meet and to participate in public life have been affected during the pandemic,” said Bachelet, who has clarified that he did not it has been because of the restrictions imposed to prevent spread but “by the actions of some governments that have taken advantage of the situation to end political dissent and criticism, including detaining civil society actors and journalists.”
“The pandemic has left us exposed, vulnerable and weakened” but “even with limited resources, the main ingredient we need” to forge a better future is “political will.” “The will to put our money where it is needed most, not where it is wanted, but where it is needed, to fight corruption, because in many countries, even in the poorest, there is more money available, but it is lost when it goes directly into the pockets of a few,” he added.
The UN’s head of human rights has also called on richer countries to help the poorest “overcome this crisis and recover better.” In this sense, “repairing the frayed system of multilateralism will be essential to managing recovery,” he said, calling on the leaders of the most powerful countries to recognize that “our world can only meet global challenges through global cooperation.”
“Simplistic nationalist responses will simply undermine collective recovery,” he warned, insisting that the first test will be the ability to ensure that vaccines “reach everyone who needs them” since “the pandemic has shown time and time again that no one is safe until everyone is.”
“Will we take this moment to devise ways to recover better? Will we properly implement the human rights vaccine that can help us build more resilient, prosperous and inclusive societies? Will we take the immediate necessary measures to combat the greatest existential threat of all, climate change?” said Bachelet, who has trusted it to do so. Otherwise, it has made clear, “the year 2020 will simply be the first step on the road to greater calamity”.



Original source in Spanish

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