Amnesty International, so the pandemic has affected human rights

The pandemic has hit human rights hard, showing even more force the inequalities between countries and government plans. This is what the annual report presented by Amnesty International for 2020 reveals and which this year comes the day after yet another extension of detention for activist Patrick Zaki in Egypt. “We have urged the Italian government to double its efforts and the Farnesina to convene the Egyptian ambassador. What is happening to Patrick Zaki concerns us ”, commented Riccardo Noury, spokesperson for Amnesty International Italia at the opening of the conference.

“Decades of divisive policies, erroneous austerity measures and choices not to invest in shaky public structures have meant that many ended up being easy prey to the virus,” said Agnès Callamard, new general secretary of Amnesty International.

This is how the pandemic has affected the most vulnerable groups, those whose rights are often not protected. They are ethnic minorities, refugees (often blocked for months and months in camps without essential services and therefore also prevention of Covid-19), the elderly and women. «We face a world in chaos “Callamard added. “At this point in the pandemic, even the most reticent of leaders in power would find it difficult to deny that our social, political and economic systems are in pieces.”

To understand what we are talking about, some data: Uganda, the most hospitable state on the African continent with around 1,400,000 refugees, immediately closed its borders without exception at the start of the pandemic, with the result that beyond 10 thousand people remained abandoned on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Gender-based and domestic violence has increased significantly. Suffice it to say that due to the limitations of movement there are many women and LGBTQ + people who have had difficulty in asking for help and are often left alone.

“In 2020, during the exceptional pandemic event, health systems have been put to the ultimate test and people have been left in an economic free fall»Stressed Callamard. “The heroes of 2020 are health workers on the front lines of saving lives and those who, although placed at the end of the income ladder, have worked to feed families and keep essential services running. It is cruel but it is so: those who gave more were protected less ».

As the Report shows, in Bangladesh, due to the lockdown and curfew, many workers in the informal sector have been left without income or social protection. In Nicaragua, within two weeks of June, at least 16 health workers were fired after they reported a lack of personal protective equipment and the state’s inadequate response to the pandemic.

Finally, the pandemic has also become a tool in some countries control of freedom of expression. In the Persian Gulf area, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Oman, criminal proceedings have been launched for “spreading false news” against people who had posted comments on social media critical of the health response of their respective governments . In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte said he had ordered the police to kill those who protested or who caused “problems” during the quarantine measures. Protests in Nigeria were stopped by shedding blood. In President Bolsonaro’s Brazil, police forces killed at least 3,181 people between January and June, an average of 17 a day.

There is a response that human rights can give to the pandemic: ensure the right to vaccines, everywhere and for free. “The pandemic has lit a ruthless beacon on a world unable to cooperate effectively on issues that desperately need global intervention, ”concluded Callamard. «The only way out of this chaos is international cooperation. States must ensure that vaccines are readily available to everyone, everywhere and for free. Pharmaceutical companies must share knowledge and technologies so that no one is left behind. The G20 states and the international financial institutions must reshape the debt of the 77 poorest states so that they can react and recover from the pandemic ”.