This article is a critical reflection on human rights obligations and the changes that have taken place in their conception and functions, as well as their impact on the protection of human rights – especially in crises. The text is divided into two parts. The first section presents the features that characterise human rights obligations while focusing on the arguments that give them identity and reinforce their binding nature, with human beings as the subjects of rights and beneficiaries of obligations that broaden the responsibility of the obligated states. The second section analyses these obligations in times of crisis, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, this piece of research focuses on two significant legal situations based on the relevant elements of obligations: on one hand, it critically reflects on the derogative clauses in obligations, and, on the other hand, reviews the prohibition of regression or dilution of human rights as a guarantee for the maintenance of such obligations