ABSTRACT
Because inequalities chip away at the glue that holds communities together, implicating the exercise of every human right, reducing inequality must be a critical policy focus as states build back and develop pandemic responses. This chapter examines three areas of inequality that intersect with COVID-19 to undermine human rights and visit devastating impacts on individuals already vulnerable because of factors such as poverty, age, race, disability, or irregular immigration status: (1) digital inequalities; (2) spatial inequalities; and (3) systemic racial inequalities. These three areas embody longstanding issues of global dimension that have taken on even greater significance since the spread of COVID-19. Training a human rights lens on these areas illuminates their interconnections as well as the ways that these particular inequalities exacerbate the insidious impacts of the pandemic.
