A/HRC/45/12 Reasonable accommodation measures are essential to enable persons with disabilities to reduce contacts and the risk of contamination.56 D. Lack of transparency and violations of the rights to information and freedom of expression 65. Transparency is a principle of good governance and one of the most important factors in managing infectious diseases. It is a necessary precondition to prevent exposure to hazardous substances, including coronaviruses, and to the full enjoyment of human rights. The human right to be protected from exposure to the COVID-19 virus, together with other human rights, has been frustrated by a lack of transparency and large information gaps as the COVID-19 virus has spread around the world. 66. The human right to access to information is integral to and inseparable from transparency. In his 2015 report to the Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur stated that information was crucial to preventing human rights violations resulting from exposure to hazardous substances and wastes. Indeed, the right to information on hazardous substances and wastes would require that relevant information be timely, appropriate, available and accessible in a manner consistent with the principle of non-discrimination;57 it must also serve to respect and protect the rights of the most vulnerable. Public health and safety information must never be confidential. This can be ensured without violating the patient’s right to privacy. 67. The Special Rapporteur noted that to protect human rights affected by hazardous substances, States were duty-bound to generate, collect, assess and update information; to effectively communicate such information, particularly to those disproportionately at risk of adverse impacts; to ensure confidentiality claims were legitimate; and to engage in international cooperation to guarantee that foreign Governments had the information necessary to protect the rights of people in their territory. He also stated that in discharging their duty to conduct human rights due diligence, businesses had a responsibility to identify and assess the actual and potential adverse impacts of hazardous substances and wastes in which they might be involved, either through their own activities or as a result of their business relationships, and to communicate information to other businesses, governments and the public effectively.58 68. Scientific progress and the protection of human rights depend on information. The Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights has highlighted that everyone has the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications. 59 The normative content of the right includes, inter alia, access by everyone without discrimination to the benefits of science and its applications, including scientific knowledge; participation of individuals and communities in decision-making and the related right to information; and an enabling environment fostering the conservation, development and diffusion of science and technology.60 69. States that applied good practice approaches drew on lessons from the outbreaks of SARS, in 2003, influenza A (H1N1), in 2009, and MERS, in 2015, to develop an early policy of free testing, targeted investigations and maximum transparency. Other countries, despite registering high numbers of cases, were very transparent about efforts to reduce transmission of the virus and provided platforms to facilitate testing, tracing and dissemination of information on COVID-19, in order to increase public awareness and address misinformation. Such States generated, assessed and acted on information to protect the most vulnerable, and managed to register relatively lower death rates, showing 56 57 58 59 60 See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Disability/COVID-19_and_The_Rights_of_Persons_with_ Disabilities.pdf; www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25725; www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25765&LangID=E. See A/HRC/30/40. A/HRC/30/40, paras. 99–100. See A/HRC/20/26. Ibid., para. 25. 15