Just COVID Recovery

The pandemic has laid bare the grave injustices of our dominant economic model. This system hasn’t just failed to prevent the cascading crises the world currently faces; it’s caused them. Weakened public services, precarious labor conditions, unequal care burdens, and entrenched gender and race discrimination made it easy for the pandemic to push so many of us over the edge into hardship and harm.

We’re at a critical juncture. The decisions governments make now will shape our post-pandemic economies. ​Countries across the globe have put in place large-scale economic relief and recovery packages in response to COVID-19. But few governments are taking their human rights obligations into account when they do. Unequal access to decision-making spaces have meant that civil society groups, particularly those working with communities most affected by the pandemic, have rarely been able to shape these responses. 

CESR is bringing attention to the inadequacies of these responses and to demand accountability for them. ​​We’re also contributing a human rights perspective on debates about the concrete reforms required to design a new system. These include: vaccines for all; well-funded universal public services, including health, water, and education; robust and comprehensive social protection systems; and reducing and redistributing the unfair and intense care burdens borne mostly by women.