IACHR
Press Release
IACHR Publishes practical guide to ensure respect for the grieving, funeral rites, and memorials of those who died during the COVID-19 pandemic
October 15, 2020
Washington, D.C. - Through its Rapid and Integrated Response Coordination Unit on the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is publishing a series of Practical Guides—drafted in collaboration with the Commission’s Special Rapporteurships—on human rights in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The IACHR has now published Practical Guides 1, concerning standards to ensure respect for the grieving, funeral rites, and memorials of those who died during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The IACHR plans to draft—within the framework of its Rapid and Integrated
Response Coordination Unit on the COVID-19 Pandemic—a series of innovative
handbooks to promote and ensure respect for human rights. These handbooks
are to develop specific public policy recommendations, to guide practices
and decisions adopted by States concerning assistance in the context of the
pandemic.
The unprecedented global health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic seriously affects the full protection of human rights in their collective and individual dimensions. In particular, Handbook 1, concerning standards to ensure respect for mourning, funerary rites, and tributes to individuals who have died during the pandemic, reviews the context, practices, and measures adopted in the region in this regard. It also features a series of recommendations and considerations concerning public policy, with a view to guiding policy development and suitability, and any decisions adopted by States on how to handle human remains, ensure respect for mourning families, and preserve the memory of individuals who have died during the pandemic.
In its Resolution 1/20, Pandemic and Human Rights in the Americas, the IACHR and its Special Rapporteurships expressed their willingness and disposition to provide technical assistance to States, regional organizations, social movements, and other institutions, to strengthen the institutional framework and to develop, implement, and assess public policies aimed at containing the pandemic in the Americas with a human rights approach. This Handbook is the first item in a series focused on technical cooperation that includes practical guidelines to strengthen the measures and public policies adopted by States to contain the pandemic while ensuring full respect for human rights.
A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to promote respect for and to defend human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this area. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who are elected in an individual capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or residence.
No. 254/20