LAUSR

> Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. > > – Arundhati Roy1 Inspired by these words, we try to imagine ‘another world’; one which puts everyone’s health and human rights at the centre. For us to do that, we need to start with introspection about the world we wish to leave behind and ask ourselves some tough questions. For we, those working on health and human rights in global spaces and beyond, need to reflect on our values, our standards, our institutions, our mechanisms, and ask if we are fit for purpose. Can we seize this opportunity to rebuild anew, without first taking a mirror to the sheer savagery of the injustice on display around the world—and our role in it? The obvious answer is— NO . Unless we realign our values, we risk dragging ‘the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred’ into the new world. With the waning of, or growing ennui from the shock of the pandemic, the world seems ready to slip back into ‘avarice’ with little thought. The reversal of the temporary but refreshing drop in carbon dioxide levels is evident, as is the greed of big pharma, and the onslaught on the global commons. Are we going to continue with the absurdity of our present or ‘ …walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world ’?1 In the WHO Constitution, world leaders proclaimed ‘the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being.’2 The true meaning and purpose of this statement while never fully realised have never seemed more distant. It took just a few weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic for …