The COVID-19 pandemic is causing various changes in the global health and socio-economic environment. The human rights sector is not an exception to these changes.

The death toll from COVID-19 is concentrated on the elderly with underlying diseases, seniors aged 65 or more, and the disabled. In particular, the mentally disabled have been living in groups for a long time even before the pandemic and showing a high incidence of underlying disease due to a lack of nutrition and exercise. These have been leading to a high mortality rate of the mentally disabled who were infected, revealing a detriment of long-term hospitalization in mental care centers. Also, unlike other patients, the existence of long-standing social prejudice against the mentally disabled is making it more difficult to treat the infected among them. The fact that COVID-19 infections frequently occur in mental care centers – social welfare facilities that do not receive certification for infection prevention – where six to ten mentally disabled patients are put together in an ondol (heated floor) room without hospital beds, clearly demonstrates how poorly the human rights of the mentally disabled are being respected in this pandemic situation. Consequently, this session seeks to analyze the human rights abuses of the mentally disabled caused by COVID-19 and discuss measures for improving the human rights of the mentally disabled moving forward.