Apart from many other consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has also brought a deterioration in human rights as governments around the world introduced harsh restrictions and limited citizens’ freedom.
The increase in human rights abuse has been observed by the United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other important specialized organizations. The problem has recently been highlighted by the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres he stressed that authoritarian regimes had used the virus as a pretext to limit freedom, including the freedom of speech. Human rights abuse was additionally affected by rising levels of poverty, discrimination, and violence.
Amongst the most frequent abuse of human rights, Guterres listed repression towards opposition activists and human rights defenders, attacks on journalists, media censorship, and the introduction of surveillance measures.
Human Rights Watch warns of alarming human rights abuse in Africa where the governments of some countries are using the pandemic to repress opposition and activists who were against them which has happened in Tanzania and Uganda. In Nigeria and Zimbabwe, the authorities went to extremes by unleashing a wave of violent repression in response to popular protests which included detention, torture, and the killing of protesters or journalists.
The human rights organization points out that at least 83 governments have recently used the pandemic to legitimize violations of freedom of speech and peaceful assembly. The governments of 51 countries have used the pandemic to justify the arrest or prosecution of their political opponents. In 18 countries, journalists or bloggers have been assaulted by the police or military and in 12 countries the authorities have decided to shut down some media outlets that were reporting the outbreak.
Some countries such as China, Bangladesh, and Egypt have detained people who criticized the authorities for not tackling the pandemic in an appropriate way. China is an example of the most serious human rights abuse as local governments have implemented online censorship, the surveillance of citizens, and have arrested coronavirus whistleblowers. This happened to a 37-year-old journalist, Zhang Zhan, who was sentenced to four years in prison after he had reported from Wuhan where the pandemic began which did not meet with approval from the authorities.
In 2020 China investigated as many as 17,000 people suspected of fabricating or spreading COVID-19-related false information. In Cambodia, the authorities detained more than 60 activists and journalists last year. In Algeria, the government forbade all street protests explaining that this move was motivated by security measures relating to the pandemic.
Last year recorded a surge of gender-based violence. In Peru, for example, 1,423 women have been murdered or have disappeared since the beginning of the pandemic.
The recent eruption of conflict in Tigray may also serve as an example of serious human rights abuse as it took the lives of many innocent civilians. Brutal abuse has also been recorded in DRC, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Somalia, and Mozambique.
