A/HRC/44/49 temporary.15 As a group of mandate holders cautioned during the present pandemic, “any emergency responses to the coronavirus must be proportionate, necessary and nondiscriminatory”. They also noted that “restrictions taken to respond to the virus must be motivated by legitimate public health goals and should not be used simply to quash dissent”.16 III. Five challenges during pandemics A. Access to information held by public authorities 18. The Human Rights Committee has stated that article 19 of the Covenant includes a right of access to information held by public authorities. Such information includes records held by a public body, regardless of the form in which the information is stored, its source and the date of production. 17 As noted by the Committee and cited approvingly by the previous mandate holder, States parties should proactively put into the public domain government information of public interest. 18 The default position must be that public authorities do not wait for a request for information; they must have an affirmative policy of releasing all relevant information in ways that are understandable to a non-technical public and that advance public health priorities. As United Nations and regional experts stated in 2004 in a joint declaration on freedom of expression, “public authorities should be required to publish proactively, even in the absence of a request, a range of information of public interest.” 19 In the public health context, the description by WHO of specific outcomes promoted by communication illustrates the underlying purposes of the human rights standards of proactive publication of information. WHO states that: First, early, transparent and understandable communication on the event establishes lines of dialogue with affected populations and stakeholders, and builds trust in the response ... Second, frequent but evolving communication will help create a trusted and dynamic relationship that can deliver advice on protective behaviours that populations and individuals can adopt. Third, communication must scope the risk in lay language, and also propose practical actions people can take ... Fourth, communication must display accountability by keeping people updated on the situation, on what is being done, and the impact of those actions in bringing the outbreak under control.20 When an individual seeks access to information not already in the public domain, the default response of government must be to release unless it can demonstrate that some legitimate limitation, guided by the principles of legality and necessity, applies. 19. The right to information is not a niche right found only in article 19. Regional instruments also guarantee the right.21 It is guaranteed in the Convention on the Rights of 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 See also Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 29 (2001) on derogations from provisions of the Covenant during a state of emergency, paras. 5 and 8. “COVID-19: States should not abuse emergency measures to suppress human rights – UN experts”, 16 March 2020. General comment No. 34, para. 18. Ibid., para. 19, and A/68/362, para. 28. See www.osce.org/fom/38632. See also Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, The Inter‐American Legal Framework regarding the Right to Access to Information, second ed., 7 March 2011, para. 32. WHO, Managing Epidemics, p. 35. African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, art. 9; American Convention on Human Rights, art. 13; Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention on Human Rights), art. 10. 7