The impact of Covid-19 on human rights

Jerald (left), Falahat (top-right) and Angelina (bottom-right)

The Centre for Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility in Business (CSDCSR) in collaboration with the Faculty of Accountancy and Management (FAM) organised a webinar titled “The Impact of COVID-19 on Human Rights” on 21 July 2020 via Microsoft Teams.

The speaker at the webinar was Jerald Joseph, who is presently the human rights commissioner of Malaysian Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM) and a board member-cum-advisor of Pusat Komunikasi Masyarakat Sdn Bhd Anti-Racism and Non-Discrimination Programme. The webinar was moderated by CSDCSR Chairperson Dr Mohammad Falahat Nejadmahani and FAM lecturer Angelina Anne Fernandez. The talk aimed to highlight how the human rights of different groups in Malaysia have been affected, as a result of Covid-19.

Angelina began the webinar by introducing Jerald to the participants, and from there, he took the floor by addressing the current Covid-19 situation in Malaysia. He explained that the Movement Control Order (MCO) was completely necessary to protect the public’s health and that restrictions were allowed to be implemented in order to contain the virus. However, he noted that despite this, the restrictions have severely impacted certain groups of people to the extent that it violated their human rights. Jerald went on to identify these groups and described how they were affected by the MCO and Covid-19. He spoke about students and vulnerable communities such as refugees, foreigners, migrant workers, stateless people, women & children, indigenous people, asylum seekers and the urban poor.

Jerald presenting his slides

“During the MCO, students had to switch to online learning. However, one has to ask, do all students have the devices for online learning, and if they do, can the devices support e-learning? One also needs to question how far has e-learning gone, in terms of whether students in rural areas have access to it. Not just that, students also need to take concern about their Wi-Fi speed, whether or not it supports e-learning, as there are those who may not have a stable Internet connection. All in all, though there have been many students who have had access to online learning, there are quite a number that do not,” said Jerald, as he explained how Covid-19 had restricted some student’s human rights to education.

Lastly, Jerald touched on how Covid-19 has affected Malaysian’s freedom of speech and information, civil rights, parliament sessions, workers’ rights, and people’s right to healthcare. He said, “In this period, many people are facing mental health problems due to poor financial situations. Thus, they should be given access to talk their problems to someone, since mental health is extremely important especially in such a time. Moreover, many marginalised communities are at risk of obtaining the virus, since they are not supplied with facemasks, gloves and hand sanitizers. The LGBT community also faces discrimination in accessing healthcare and refugees arriving in Malaysia could also contract and spread the virus if not given proper screening.”

The talk ended with a brief Q&A and group photo sessions.

Jerald (top row, middle) with the participants

Jerald Joseph has been a human rights defender and consultant at both local and international levels for the last 20 years. He specialised in human rights issues concerning the rights of indigenous people, elimination of racial discrimination, economic, social and cultural rights, as well as Human Rights Based Approach in Development (HRBA). He also served as a member of various human rights organisations including the Commonwealth Foundation, Asian South Pacific Bureau for Adult Education, Asia-Pacific NGO Steering Committee of World Conference against Racism (WCAR).