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South Africa's Constitution is based on a prized Bill of human rights. Our government's response to the Covid-19 pandemic, like HIV/AIDS before it, claims to have been based on protecting rights, particularly to health care services and life. But in the face of widespread reports of police and army brutality, 450,000 lockdown arrests, hunger and collapsing education and healthcare systems, has it really advanced rights? How could we have done better?

What happens when rights appear to be pitted against each other, such as the right to be vaccinated and to be protected from risks of infection from people who refuse to be vaccinated?