HRC 50th Session: Panel discussion on the good governance in protecting human rights during and after Covid-19

22 June, 2022

Delivered by Ms. Armine Petrosyan, Second Secretary

President,

We thank all the panelists for their remarks on Covid-related challenges, principles of good governance in protecting human rights during and after pandemic, as well as practices for the efficient use of new technologies in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We have all found ourselves in an unprecedented and unforeseen situation with pandemic. However, it has become clear that the COVID-19 has had a disproportionate effect on developing countries, particularly for people residing in conflict areas where health and essential services have already been devastated by hostilities and crises.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how dependent we are on the information technologies regardless of the development level for a given society. Imagine what should have been the impact of such a pandemic, with a strictly imposed lock-down, a decade or two ago, without teleconferencing, social networks, internet, and cellular phones. Although in our days digital technologies help us to cope with this challenge but still, we see real digital divides that need to be realistically assessed. Those are divides along age lines, ones that separate urban and rural populations, rich and poor, haves and have nots. We need to address it urgently in order to be prepared to the next crisis which will most certainly come.

The Covid-19 pandemic revealed the perils of disinformation in the healthcare sector. Armenia has witnessed that one of the significant threats to the effective response to the pandemic and the immunization process is the dissemination of false information regarding medicines and vaccines, which compromises the human rights to science and information. Public trust in science and evidence is essential for overcoming Covid-19. Therefore, we welcome international commitment toward safeguarding the science-based information about the Covid-19 related issues from further politicization.

I thank you.

MFA RA
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