Amnesty International on the deteriorating human rights situation caused by the pandemic

International human rights organization Amnesty International notes the deterioration of the human rights situation in the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Agnes Callamard, the organization’s general secretary, the world is in chaos, TASS reports.

The annual report of the international human rights organization Amnesty International was published today. It draws attention to the many challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is noted that it has exacerbated systemic inequality, the world is in chaos, and politicians can no longer deny that “social, economic and political systems have collapsed.” Agnes Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, says:

“The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically exposed and exacerbated inequalities within and between countries, and demonstrated our leaders’ blatant disregard for human values.”

The report pays special attention to the fact that the pandemic had an extremely negative impact on the situation of refugees, ethnic minorities, women and the elderly, and LGBT communities. It is also noted that almost a third of the global morbidity and mortality rates concern critically affected Central Asia and Europe. The authorities there use the situation to expand their powers and satisfy political ambitions, suppress freedoms, and ignore human rights.

The authors of the published report draw attention to the criteria for the introduction of a state of emergency in connection with the coronavirus, while the governments of at least 10 states ignored some provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights. In a pandemic, such steps were considered acceptable, but human rights activists insist that such restrictions can only be “temporary, necessary and proportionate.”

Also, human rights activists note that in some countries – Poland, Hungary, Romania and France – there was an abuse of both existing and new legal norms in order to “restrict freedom of expression.”

In October last year, the US State Department suspected some human rights organizations of anti-Semitism. The Foreign Office is considering the possibility of bringing such charges against Human Rights Watch, Oxfam and Amnesty International. The latter noted in response that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was formulated precisely in response to the atrocities committed against the Jewish people.

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