Geneva – 16 October 2014

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1. SOUNDBITE (English) Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:

“The ability of Ebola to lay waste to human lives on an immense scale is now being realized. Its potential to devastate the human rights of those who survive, of entire countries and regions, is barely being considered. Underestimating the critical importance of human rights – in particular the right to health, to education, to sanitation, to development and to good governance – played in creating this crisis in the first place has barely been discussed.”

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2. SOUNDBITE (English) Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:

“Ebola thrives at the intersection of chronic poverty, failure to deliver adequate public services, and failures of public trust in the authorities. It should be obvious that any response must address those points. We must also beware of ‘us’ and ‘them’, a mentality that locks people into rigid identity groups and reduces all Africans – or all West Africans, or some smaller, national or local group – to a stereotype. As the international community accelerates its medical assistance, it is also vital that every person struck down with Ebola be treated with dignity, not stigmatized or cast out.”

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3. SOUNDBITE (English) Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:

“My office is also drawing up guidelines on quarantine, because, if imposed and enforced injudiciously, quarantine can very easily not only violate a wide range of human rights, but also in so doing accelerate the spread of diseases like Ebola. I also want to point out that the introduction of criminal penalties into public health responses is very likely to backfire, by driving the epidemic underground.”

STORYLINE

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Thursday that Ebola has the potential to “devastate the the human rights” of those who survive it.

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said it was important that those who have been infected with the disease be treated with dignity and not be stigmatized.

Al Hussein said his office was drawing up guidelines on quarantine for Ebola patients, warning that if it was not done properly it could not only violate human rights, but accelerate the spread of the virus.

The deadly virus, which is transmitted by bodily fluids, has so far infected nearly 9,000 people and killed almost 4,500.

The numbers of people who contract Ebola are currently doubling every three to four weeks.