Joint article of the EU ambassador and the EU member states ambassadors accredited to TT - Germany, France, the Netherlands and Spain - on Human Rights Day, December 10

ON THIS day the world commemorates the day when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted. A landmark text that has inspired and transformed the lives of people worldwide. Over the past 72 years, much progress has been achieved. Many more people have become free from oppression, free from poverty, free to live the lives they want. Unfortunately, we have also witnessed periodic setbacks.

One of the biggest is certainly the current one, the one we have been living with for almost two years. The covid19 pandemic and the measures it prompted raised an unprecedented collective challenge to the fundamental and human rights of everyone globally.

Restrictions have an impact on our personal and social interaction, on healthcare, education, work and business activity, on the protection of our sensitive personal data as well. Certain groups suffer the consequences of a pandemic particularly painfully: older people, victims of domestic violence, refugees and migrants, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, LGBTI people.

We were not equal before the pandemic, and we have not been equal in the face of it. Those who were poor before it have become poorer; those who were disadvantaged now face even greater disadvantages. Undoubtedly, the social and economic consequences of the pandemic will be lasting and will significantly exacerbate already existing inequalities.

This year's Human Rights Day theme relates to 'Equality' and article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - 'All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.'

The principles of equality and non-discrimination are at the heart of human rights. Against the background of the pandemic, almost on a daily basis we hear someone invoking human rights. It is hard to remember when the concept of human rights was so present in the public and media space. As a basic human right, there is no right more important than the right to life, unfortunately it is interpreted in different ways, and what we witness creates unwanted divisions in societies.

We in the EU consider vaccination to be a very serious obligation, although this decision is not an easy one and we are aware that the dynamics of vaccination are not the same everywhere in the EU. It would be good to do everything with the utmost respect for the freedom of the individual, but at the same time the common good of so many people is at stake. We believe that the desire to protect others should prevail over any freedom of choice of the individual in this case.

We understand people who have had negative experiences in the past, and do not want to be exposed to danger, but it is necessary to see if their reservations are really well scientifically based or it is simply a mere personal attitude based on, for example, an enormous amount of dangerous misinformation and disinformation being spread th