The Organization of American States (OAS) was founded in 1948 to achieve an order of peace and justice, to promote solidarity, to strengthen collaboration and to defend states' sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence. Traumatised by the horrors of the Second World War, the international community sought to consolidate human rights law as a check against state power.
Now we face a new global threat: a pandemic that does not respect borders, gender or social class and that disproportionately affects vulnerable groups. Governments can of course take exceptional measures to combat the biggest public health crisis of our time, but they must respect, guarantee and recognise the indivisibility of human rights. Moreover, in its resolution “The OAS Response to the COVID19 Pandemic”, the organization instructed member states to ensure full respect for human rights as they respond to the crisis.
The COVID-19 pandemic brings us face to face with our region’s longstanding problems. Most of our public health systems are underfunded. Weak labour protections, a high percentage of people working in the informal sector and poverty combine to intensify inequality and discrimination across the Americas. And as if this were not enough, governments have used the need to combat the pandemic as a pretext for introducing repressive measures.
