Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This chapter examines the United Nations (UN) response to the COVID-19 pandemic and assesses its consistency with international human rights law norms. It studies whether the UN system, including the World Health Organization (WHO), engaged with COVID through the lens of human rights norms. The responses of the UN Charter and treaty bodies, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Secretary-General are also highlighted and reviewed. The chapter demonstrates that many human rights bodies responded quickly to the pandemic, rapidly issuing numerous statements. These guidelines have expressed support for multilateralism at the WHO and underscored States’ obligations to ensure, inter alia, the right to health and the Sustainable Development Goals. Finally, the issue of vaccines—which has exposed deep divisions between developed and developing States, and tested human rights when confronted with the norms of international economic law—is examined.</jats:p>