Policy responses to Covid-19
This article is part of a feature series exploring how the Covid-19 pandemic and the measures to prevent its spread are impacting the human rights of under-18s.
This page features a list of policy developments and recommendations on children’s rights in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It includes recommendations by international, regional and national human rights bodies and organisations on a wide range of issues.
This list of resources will be updated regularly, and we invite readers to share their materials with us via info@crin.org
+ General human rights trackers
- International Justice Resource Center, COVID-19 Guidance from Supranational Human Rights Bodies (continuously updated)
- Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Rapid and Integrated Response Coordination Unit (SACROI, by its Spanish acronym) on the crisis in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic (SACROI COVID-19)
- International Center for Not-For-Profit Law (ICNL), COVID-19 Civic Freedom Tracker (continuously updated)
- Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT)
- Centre for Civil and Political Rights (CCPR), Data Collection Document (COVID measures taken by countries that have ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights)
- Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Dimensions of COVID-19 Response, 19 March 2020
- Human Rights Watch, COVID-19: A Human Rights Checklist, 14 April 2020
- Amnesty International, COVID-19 News (continuously updated)
+ General children's rights resources
United Nations
- Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), COVID-19 Statement, 8 April 2020
- Initiative launched by the European Union (EU), Group of Latin America and Caribbean countries (GRULAC) and Members of the Group of Friends of Children and the SDGs: ‘Protect Our Children’
- UN, Policy Brief: The impact of COVID-19 on children, 15 April 2020
- United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), COVID-19 and the impact on children’s rights: the imperative for a human rights-based approach, April 2020
- United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Protecting the most vulnerable children from the impact of coronavirus: an Agenda for action
- United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Adolescents and Young People & COVID-19, 24 March 2020
Regional human rights bodies
- African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC), Guiding Note on Children’s Rights during COVID-19, 8 April 2020
National Human Rights Institutions
- European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC), Children’s rights in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak, 1 April 2020
Civil society
- Human Rights Watch, COVID-19’s Devastating Impact on Children, 9 April 2020
- Save the Children, Protect A Generation: The impact of COVID-19 on children's lives, 2020
- Save the Children, The Hidden Impact of COVID-19 on Child Rights, September 2020
+ Children in care. Children with disabilities
United Nations
- Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), COVID-19 and the rights of persons with disabilities: guidance, 29 April 2020
- Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, COVID-19: Who is protecting the people with disabilities?, 17 March 2020
- Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General on Disability and Accessibility and Special Envoy on COVID-19 for Latin America and the Caribbean (World Health Organization), Joint Statement: Mental Health of Persons with Disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic
Regional human rights bodies
- Council of Europe, Commissioner for Human Rights: Persons with disabilities must not be left behind in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic
- Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Press release on COVID-19 and the rights of persons with disabilities (in Spanish)
National Human Rights Institutions
- Children’s Commissioner for England, Statement on changes to regulations affecting children’s social care, 30 April 2020
Civil society
- Better Care Network, Resource Center on COVID-19 and Children's Care (continuously updated)
- Better Care Network et al, Protection of Children during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Children and alternative care, 9 April 2020
- Child Rights International Network (CRIN), Children in Out-of-Home Care: Lessons from the Pandemic, 23 June 2020
- Disability Rights International, Action steps to protect children and adults with disabilities during COVID-19 pandemic – especially in institutions and orphanages, 20 April 2020
- Disability Rights International, COVID-19 Disability Rights Monitor Dashboard, 2 June 2020
Regional and national news
- Supreme Court of India, Urgent measures needed to protect children in care institutions, April 2020
+ Climate crisis and other environmental disasters. Recovery plans from COVID-19
United Nations
- Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, Statement ahead of the World Environment Day on 5 June
- Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, COVID-19: “Not an excuse” to roll back environmental protection and enforcement, 15 April 2020
Civil society
- 350.org: Open Letter: Principles for a just recovery from COVID-19
- Amnesty International, Responses to Covid-19 must not ignore the climate crisis, 14 May 2020
Find out more about the Environment.
+ Data and privacy
United Nations
- United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), COVID-19 and children’s digital privacy, 7 April 2020
- United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Digital contact tracing and surveillance during COVID-19, June 2020
Regional human rights bodies
- Council of Europe Chair of the Committee of Convention 108 and Data Protection Commissioner, Joint statement on the right to data protection in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, 30 March 2020
Civil society
- 30 organisations, Open letter to policy makers, data protection authorities and providers worldwide regarding rapid technology adoption for educational aims, 16 April 2020
- 300 researchers, Joint Statement on Contact Tracing, 19 April 2020
- European Digital Rights (EDRi), COVID-19 & Digital Rights: Document Pool, 4 May 2020
- Free Software Foundation, Remote education does not require giving up rights to freedom and privacy, 14 May 2020
- Human Rights Watch, As Schools Close Over Coronavirus, Protect Kids’ Privacy in Online Learning, 27 March 2020
- Joint Civil Society Statement: States use of digital surveillance technologies to fight pandemic must respect human rights, 2 April 2020
- Privacy International, Schools and COVID-19, 24 April 2020
- Privacy International, Tracking the Global Response to COVID-19 (continuously updated)
Find out more about Children’s rights in the digital age.
+ Deprivation of liberty
United Nations
- Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), COVID-19 Statement, 8 April 2020
- Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Urgent action needed to prevent COVID-19 “rampaging through detention” - Bachelet, 25 March 2020
- Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, COVID-19: Measures needed to protect people deprived of liberty, 30 March 2020
- UNICEF/Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, Technical Note: COVID-19 and Children Deprived of their Liberty, 25 April 2020
- World Health Organisation (WHO), Preparedness, prevention and control of COVID-19 in prisons and other places of detention: Interim guidance, March 2020
Regional human rights bodies
- Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Commissioner calls for release of immigration detainees while COVID-19 crisis continues, 26 March 2020
- Council of Europe, European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of Punishment, Statement of principles relating to the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty in the context of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, 20 March 2020
National Human Rights Institutions
- Children’s Commissioner for England, Calling on the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice to ensure the rights of children in custody are upheld during the coronavirus outbreak, 25 March 2020
Civil society
- Child Rights International Network (CRIN), Coronavirus and children in detention, 26 March 2020
- Howard League, Coronavirus in prison: Measures that could be considered, 18 March 2020; Children in prison during the Covid-19 pandemic; Ending the detention of unsentenced children during the Covid-19 pandemic, May 2020
- Penal Reform International, Coronavirus: Healthcare and human rights of people in prison, 16 March 2020
- Terre des hommes, Accelerate release of children from detention; Protect children from COVID-19, 27 March 2020
Other national news
Release of children from detention / prevention of detention
- Argentina: Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation - on prevention of detention of children with mothers in penal facilities: news item with full judgment in Spanish
- France: Ministry of Justice announces the release of around 5,000 detainees (in French), 23 March 2020
- United States: Prison Policy, Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, 24 April 2020 (includes compilation of releases across the country)
- United States: District Court, Central District of California - The US government must release migrant children held in government family detention centers by mid-July - full order
Campaigns for the release of children from detention
International
- Human Rights Watch, Detained Children Left Out of COVID-19 Response, 14 May 2020
Regional
- Amnesty International, Sub-Saharan Africa: Protect detainees at risk of COVID-19, unclog prisons and release prisoners of conscience, 20 April 2020
National
- Belarus: UN experts urge Belarus to release children and young people jailed for drug offences amid COVID-19 crisis, 7 May 2020
- Egypt: Just Security Blog, Coronavirus Adds Urgency to Ending Egypt’s Detention and Torture of Children, 5 May 2020
- Ireland: Amnesty International calling for releases, 25 March 2020
- Pakistan: Human Rights Watch, Prisoners at Risk of COVID-19, 19 March 2020
- Palestine: DCI-Palestine, Israel must release all Palestinian child detainees amid COVID-19 pandemic, 13 April 2020
- Sri Lanka: Committee for the Protection of Prisoners calls for home leave and early release - full text of letter published on Twitter, 21 March 2020
- United Arab Emirates: Human Rights Watch, Prisoners with HIV Vulnerable to Coronavirus, 19 March 2020
- United States: Illinois, 30 local groups call for release of youth from Illinois’s juvenile prisons, 20 March 2020
Litigation
European Court of Human Rights
- Hafeez v. United Kingdom [2020] Application no. 14198/20, communicated 19 March 2020 - extradition and risk of Article 3 breach related to COVID in US detention.
National
- El Salvador: 148-2020 Ac, Habeas corpus, Supreme Court - order to release individuals detained for violating lockdown (order in Spanish, short news story in English)
- United Kingdom: Howard League and Prison Reform Trust issue government with letter before action over its response to coronavirus in prison, 17 April 2020 (media statement, letter before claim)
Find out more about Deprivation of liberty.
+ Economic, social and cultural rights. Inequality and poverty
United Nations
- Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Statement on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on economic, social and cultural rights
- Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and human rights, Responses to COVID-19 crisis: UN expert urges more government spending targeting inequality, not big business, 15 April 2020
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, COVID-19 crisis highlights urgent need to transform global economy, 1 May 2020
- Special Rapporteur on the right to development, “Leave no one behind” – Don’t forget your commitments in your response to the COVID-19 crises, 9 April 2020
- United Nations Development Programme’s Asia-Pacific bureau, Senior UN official calls for universal basic income to tackle growing inequality, 6 May 2020
Regional human rights bodies
- African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Press release on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on economic, social and cultural rights in Africa, 4 June 2020
Civil society
- The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR), Of Limitations and Retrogression: Assessing COVID-19’s Impact on Children’s ESC Rights, 26 May 2020
- Human Rights Watch, Pandemic shakes up world’s education systems, 19 March 2020
- Human Rights Watch, IMF: Make COVID-19 Funds Transparent, Accountable, 9 April 2020
- Human Rights Watch, Development Finance for Covid-19 Crisis Should Uphold Human Rights, 18 May 2020
+ Freedom of expression and freedom of information
United Nations
- Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Representative on Freedom of the Media and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, COVID-19: Governments must promote and protect access to and free flow of information during pandemic, 19 March 2020
Regional human rights bodies
- Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa, Press release on the Importance of Access to the Internet in Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic, 8 April 2020
Civil society
- ARTICLE 19, Coronavirus: Impacts on freedom of expression (continuously updated)
- Child Rights International Network (CRIN), How coronavirus makes us rethink youth protests, 30 April 2020
Find out more about Children’s civil and political rights.
+ Freedom of peaceful assembly and association
United Nations
- Special Rapporteur on the right to peaceful assembly and association, States responses to Covid 19 threat should not halt freedoms of assembly and association, 14 April 2020
Find out more about Children’s civil and political rights.
+ Girls. Sexual and reproductive health and rights
United Nations
- UN Secretary General, Put women and girls at centre of COVID-19 recovery, 9 April 2020
- UN Working Group on discrimination against women and girls, Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic must not discount women and girls
- Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (Executive Director of UN Women), Violence against women and girls: the shadow pandemic, 6 April 2020
Regional human rights bodies
- Council of Europe, COVID-19: Ensure women’s access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, 7 May 2020
- Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, The IACHR calls on Member States to adopt a gender perspective in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to combat sexual and domestic violence in this context, 11 April 2020
- Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa, Press Release on violation of women’s rights during the COVID-19 Pandemic, 6 May 2020
Civil society
- Child Rights International Network (CRIN), Women and girls’ reproductive rights under lockdown, 28 May 2020
+ LGBTI children
United Nations
- Human rights experts, COVID-19: The suffering and resilience of LGBT persons must be visible and inform the actions of States, 14 May 2020
- Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), COVID-19 and the human rights of LGBTI people, 17 April 2020
Civil society
- ILGA Europe, COVID-19 and specific impact on LGBTI people and what authorities should be doing to mitigate impact
+ Refugees, migration and statelessness
United Nations
- UN Committee on Migrant Workers, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, COVID-19: Governments must protect the rights of migrants during the pandemic and beyond, UN experts urge, 26 May 2020
- Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), International Organization for Migration (IOM) and World Health Organization (WHO), The rights and health of refugees, migrants and stateless must be protected in Covid-19 response
- Henrietta Fore (UNICEF Executive Director) and Fillippo Grandi (UN High Commissioner for Refugees), As COVID-19 pandemic continues, forcibly displaced children need more support than ever, 20 April 2020
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, COVID-19: Do not forget internally displaced persons, 1 April 2020
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants and the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, UN experts call on Governments to adopt urgent measures to protect migrants and trafficked persons in their response to COVID-19, 3 April 2020
National Human Rights Institutions
- European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC), Open Letter on the emergency situation of migrant children trapped in camps at the border between Greece and Turkey and on the Greek Islands, 6 April 2020
Civil society
- International Detention Coalition, Statements and Resources from IDC Members and Partners (continuously updated)
+ Street children
United Nations
- UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, COVID-19 Guidance Notes, April 2020
Civil society
- Consortium for Street Children, How COVID-19 Affects Street Children (continuously updated)
- Consortium for Street Children, COVID-19 and street-connected children in Latin America, April 2020
+ Violence against children
United Nations
- Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence Against Children, COVID19 - Global solidarity is key to protect children during and after the crisis, as we are all in this together, ensuring no child is left behind
- Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence Against Children, UN experts call for urgent action to mitigate heightened risks of violence against children, 7 April 2020
- Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, Urgent need for child protection services to mitigate the risk of child sexual abuse and exploitation worldwide, 6 May 2020
- UN Inter-Agency Working Group on Violence against Children, Agenda for Action: 8 United Nations entities launch roadmap to protect children from violence in response to COVID-19, 27 April 2020
- Working Group on discrimination against women and girls; Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children; Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities; Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, States must combat domestic violence in the context of COVID-19 lockdowns, 27 March 2020
Regional human rights bodies
- Council of Europe Lanzarote Committee, COVID-19 confinement: States must step up protection against sexual exploitation and abuse, 7 April 2020
Civil society
- ECPAT, Why children are at risk of sexual abuse and exploitation during COVID-19, 7 April 2020
- Human Rights Watch, Millions of Children Threatened by Violence Risk Being Forgotten Amid Coronavirus Lockdowns, 24 April 2020
Find out more about Sexual violence.
+ Other: Judicial processes
United Nations
- Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Coronavirus emergency: challenges for the justice system, April 2020
National measures
- France: No. Circulaire: CRIM-2020-10/E13.03.2020 (in French) - Circular relating to the adaptation of criminal and civil activity of the courts on measures for preventing and combating the COVID-19 pandemic.