1st Edition
COVID-19 and the Right to Health in Africa
This collection draws upon a range of thematic and regional case studies and uses the right to health as a normative framework to explore the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa.
Drawing lessons from across the continent, the book discusses the challenges faced by African states seeking to ensure the availability, accessibility, and quality of health care in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the volume explores the impact of the pandemic on the right to health of vulnerable and marginalized groups, such as women, children, elderly persons with disabilities, refugees and asylum seekers, and people from disadvantaged communities. Due to the poor funding of the healthcare systems, access to health-related services was limited to these groups in many African countries, thereby leading to avoidable COVID-19-related deaths through shortages of vital supplies, including diagnostic tests, ventilators, and oxygen cylinders. Chapters in the volume also explore the contentious issues of vaccine mandates, equity, resource allocation, and the rights of healthcare providers during the pandemic.
This collection will be of interest to students of public health, human rights, and the social sciences, as well as to academics and policymakers with an interest in the nexus between the COVID-19 pandemic and public health policy in Africa.
List of contributors
Foreword by J. Michael Ryan
PART I: Conceptual issues
1 Introduction
Ebenezer Durojaye and Roopanand Mahadew
2 Discriminatory practices against women in access to health care in Kenya in the context of the
COVID-19 pandemic
Soila Kigera
3 Indivisibility and interdependence of human rights in the context of COVID-19
Bhavna Mahadew and Roopanand Mahadew
PART II: Impact of COVID-19 on access to health related goods and services
4 Situation of COVID-19 vaccine inequity in developing countries
Paul O. Ogendi
5 COVID-19 vaccine mandate and the right to health in Africa: Should Africa toe the path of the US?
Obiajulu Nnamuchi
6 An intersectional perspective on inequalities in access to COVID-19 vaccines in Africa: The case of migrants
Aisosa Jennifer Omoruyi
7 A human rights approach to budgetary allocation and the right to health: COVID-19 and health systems in Africa
Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz
PART III: Impact of COVID-19 on the right to health of disadvantaged and marginalized groups
8 Tale of two pandemics: Interrogating the impact of COVID-19 on access to maternal healthcare rights for rural women in Kenya and Uganda
Muwanguzi M. Robert, Ayeranga Godfrey, and Miyienda Pauline
9 Impact of COVID-19 on the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women in Eswatini
Simangele Mavundla and Ann Strode
10 Protection of the right to health of minorities and vulnerable groups during the COVID-19 pandemic
Mansha Mohee
11 The nexus between COVID-19 and sexual and reproductive health of adolescents: Bringing
adolescents ‘home’
Godfrey Kangaude and Catriona Macleod
12 Impact of COVID-19 on healthcare providers in Africa
Adetoun T. Adebanjo
13 Impact of COVID-19 on the enjoyment of rights to abortion care and the role of transparency
Benson Chakaya Atonga
14 Role of regional human rights bodies and national courts in addressing human rights in the context of COVID-19 pandemic
Ebenezer Durojaye
15 The nexus between COVID-19 and gender-based violence against women: A case of Botswana, Kenya, and Nigeria
Keikantse Phele
Biography
Ebenezer Durojaye is a professor of law at the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, South Africa. His areas of research include human rights, socio-economic rights, sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender, and constitutionalism. He is the editor of Litigating the Right to Health in Africa: Challenges and Prospects (Routledge 2015) and co-editor of International Law and the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control: Lessons from Africa and Beyond (Routledge 2022), Constitutional Resilience and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Perspectives from Sub-Saharan Africa (2022), and Sexual Harassment, Law and Human Rights in Africa (2023).
Roopanand Mahadew is an associate professor of law at the Department of Law, University of Mauritius, Mauritius. His research and teaching explore international human rights law, public international law, and legal research methodology. He is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters.
