COVID-19 And The Decline Of Global Civic Freedom – The Organization for World Peace

Across the world, the state of civil liberties has declined throughout COVID-19 pandemic, according to a recent study. In their annual review, Civicus Monitor, a global alliance of civil society groups, found that 87% of the worlds population is now living in countries deemed to be closed, repressed or obstructed an increase of over 4% from the previous year. Under the guise of the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments have sought to curtail basic human rights, including freedom of speech, peaceful assembly and association, often as a means to suppress dissidence and consolidate their hold on power. Of particular concern are the growing obstructions of civic freedoms in the Americas, where four countries including the United States have dropped a rating since the previous year. In response, Civicus Monitor and other human rights groups are calling on governments across the world to push back on authoritarianism and any attempts to undermine the inalienable rights afforded to all individuals.

According to Doug Rutzen and Nikhil Dutta, writers for the Just Security organisation, pandemics are fertile breeding grounds for governmental overreach. Certainly, as we have witnessed, this has been the case in many parts of the world since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. China, for instance, sought to expand its surveillance technology to an even more dangerous level, far beyond what is needed to trace the spread of the virus. Even the United States, a country that prides itself on upholding democratic freedoms to the highest standard, has witnessed a noticeable decline in the civic space, largely seen through restrictive laws, the excessive use of force against protesters, and an increasingly hostile environment for the press,according to the Civicus Monitor. Ultimately, as put by Belalba Barreto, in most regions this year the story around civic freedoms looks bleak. At a time when civic rights are needed more than ever to hold governments accountable, the space for this is further being restricted.

Measures employed by governments to suppress civic freedoms, whether it be in the form of censorship, attacks on the press or harassment of human rights defenders, go far beyond what is acceptable under international law. Certainly, given the severity of this public health crisis, there is a space for emergency actions to be taken. Nevertheless, governments have a responsibility to ensure that efforts to contain the COVID-19 virus are proportionate and time-restricted, preventing such powers from being exploited after the pandemic subsides. Other countries also have a responsibility to keep non-abiding states accountable by identifying and condemning human rights abuses as they occur.

Even prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, many countries across the world had been moving towards increasingly closed or shrinking civic spaces. Since the early 2000s, an increasing number of governments have sought to impose legal or extra-legal measures to limit the capacity and space of civil society actors, according to Freedom House. It is also important to note that no longer are such trends confined to authoritarian states such as China or Russia. The state of political rights and civil liberties has also become increasingly under threat in many of the worlds most free societies, which has had profound effects on their credibility and power to promote democracy on a global scale.

Whilst we may be embarking upon a new year, it is clear that the COVID-19 pandemic, and all its ensuing repercussions, will continue to permeate our lives for the foreseeable future. Going forward, it is vital that we no longer tolerate governments who seek to capitalise upon the conditions of the pandemic to dismantle the civic rights and liberties of their own people. Whilst recognising the challenges associated with dealing with this unprecedented public health crisis, measures that can have harmful and discriminatory effects on basic civic freedoms, whether intentional or not, should ultimately be resisted.

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COVID-19 And The Decline Of Global Civic Freedom - The Organization for World Peace