A/HRC/45/12 basic services and social protection or protection of their human rights guaranteed. 9 Students face serious limitations on the enjoyment of their right to education due to inequalities in digital access for remote learning.10 All these elements increase, directly or indirectly, vulnerability to COVID-19. It must be emphasized that the vast majority of these impacts could have been minimized had States responded appropriately to their obligation to prevent exposure and protect human rights. 13. The following section of the report illustrates the differences between States of these extremes. As the cases continue to rise in many countries, it will be essential for States to improve on the experiences of countries with earlier outbreaks in upholding the many human rights obligations that play an integral part in efforts to prevent exposure, recognizing the grave consequences of inaction. III. Key factors in the failure to prevent exposure to the COVID19 virus 14. The inability to stop the COVID-19 epidemic from becoming the catastrophic pandemic that it is today is a failure among States in upholding their duty to prevent exposure. In examining the development of the pandemic, and States with relative success in responding to the COVID-19 crisis as compared to those with far worse records, key elements come to light regarding the prevention of exposure. The Special Rapporteur identifies these below. A. Environmental degradation 15. The best way to prevent exposure to zoonotic diseases such as coronaviruses is to prevent them from entering human society in the first place. While the speed at which COVID-19 disease spread across the world shocked many and found many States grossly unprepared, scientists and international authorities had been repeatedly warning governments of the grave risks of emerging infectious diseases from nature for many years. In 2005, the United Nations Environment Programme warned about the imminence of such a pandemic and the urgent need to take action.11 Early warning signs were clearly visible in previous outbreaks of sudden acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), Ebola virus disease, avian influenza, Rift Valley fever virus, West Nile virus, and Zika virus disease.12 Evidence suggests that COVID-19 is also a zoonotic disease passed on from wildlife to humans, 13 the risk of which has been exacerbated through relentless destruction of natural habitats. 16. Emerging infectious diseases in humans are frequently caused by pathogens originating from animal hosts, and zoonotic disease outbreaks present a major challenge to global health. The number of new diseases per decade has increased nearly fourfold over the past 60 years, and since 1980, the number of outbreaks per year has more than tripled. 14 Data shows that environmental degradation and land use changes are key drivers where deforestation, climate change, habitat fragmentation and destruction of biodiversity, wildlife trade, urban sprawl and an expanding agricultural frontier increase contacts between humans and wildlife, enhancing the chances of zoonoses emerging.15 Around 75 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 See www.humanrights.dk/sites/humanrights.dk/files/media/Covid-19%20response%20and%20 recovery%20must%20build%20on%20human%20rights%20and%20SDGs%20.pdf. See https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse. See https://news.un.org/en/story/2005/02/129442-environmental-changes-are-spreading-infectiousdiseases-un-study. See https://environmentlive.unep.org/media/docs/assessments/UNEP_Frontiers_2016_ report_emerging_issues_of_environmental_concern.pdf. See www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9. See www.un.org/africarenewal/web-features/coronavirus/simple-fact-informed-hygiene-measuresafrica-can-slow-covid-19-spread. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK215318/. 5