Civil Rights in Times of Pandemic – A Code of Conduct for City Governance

We discuss the need for a Code of Conduct for local urban governments that should consider a line-up of interconnected civil rights: Access to Information but also the Right to Privacy and to Personal Liberty. Local governments have a key role in collecting, analysing, and sharing information, which have a strong impact on personal liberty and privacy. However, due to COVID-19 pandemic emergency, national governments can declare derogations to the right to “seek, receive, and impart information”. We deliberate the value of enshrining Access to Information as an absolute human right in order to prevent the spread of misinformation and ensure the accountability of multi-level governance structures. The same is true for the Right to Privacy, which is the other side of the same coin. Finally, national governments should recognize the unique needs of urbanized areas when it comes to personal liberty under present or future pandemics and establish consistent policies to support cities as duty-holders in a rights-based regime.