China pandemic experiences worst human rights crackdown since Tiananmen
The marginalized have suffered and are suffering the worst consequences of the pandemic in the world.
This is underlined by the organization
Amnesty International
(AI) in its recently published Annual Report, which analyzes the human rights situation during 2020 in a context marked by the coronavirus.
Refugees, ethnic minorities, women, workers on the front lines of the crisis and those employed in the informal sector have been the main victims of the tragic outbreak of the virus.
"The pandemic has been a devastating element on human rights, but fundamentally it has been so because there have been decades of divisive, demonizing policies, we have seen decades of ill-advised austerity policies and years of official decisions not to invest in deteriorating public infrastructure. All that. The situation, with the arrival of the pandemic, has meant that too many people have been easy prey for the virus, "
Esteban Beltrán
, director of Amnesty International in Spain, explains to EL MUNDO.es
.
"All these groups, which number in the millions, have been betrayed by neglected health systems and highly unequal economic and social support," he adds.
Covid-19 killed at least 1.8 million people
worldwide in 2020. According to the NGO's conclusions, the coronavirus and this high number of victims could multiply thanks, in part, to a global environment of inequalities broader and deeper within and between countries.
Thus, the pandemic has brought out the great
systemic inequalities
at the planetary level.
The health emergency and the policies of austerity and lack of investment have overwhelmed the already deficient primary care systems, exposing health personnel and abandoning older people who live in residences and those who live with more health needs to their fate. pressing, highlights the dossier.
For AI, "the pandemic has exposed the terrible legacy of deliberately divisive and destructive policies, which perpetuated inequality, discrimination and oppression and paved the way for the ruin caused by Covid-19."
The study comprehensively covers 149 countries and analyzes the trends observed in the world by region.
Beltrán highlights how the American continent, for example, has registered the highest number of health workers infected by the disease in the world: some
570,000 health professionals
.
"In half of the 149 countries we have documented, government action had discriminatory consequences for all marginalized groups," he says.
A migrant child, after crossing the US-Mexico border.
NAKAMURAREUTERS
"Toxic leadership"
A planet whose leaders have not been up to the task and who as a general rule "have ruthlessly profited from the crisis by using the pandemic to renew their attacks on human rights," echoes in the pages of the report.
This is what AI calls "toxic leadership."
"There is a virulent strain of leaders who have simply used the pandemic to undermine rights. We have seen attacks on freedom of expression in Hungary, in the Gulf countries. The pandemic has also been used to continue to suppress unrelated criticism. the virus in India, where the prime minister established
anti-terrorist measures
to break into homes and offices, and in China, where the Uyghur people have continued to be persecuted, "says the director of the NGO for Spain.
In the midst of the health crisis, world leaders have been characterized by "opportunism and absolute disregard for human rights" and have used the pandemic as an excuse to restrict rights and silence critical voices.
Some leaders have not hesitated to resort to the use of force.
Like the Philippine president,
Rodrigo Duterte
, who ordered the police to "shoot to kill" against those who protested or caused problems during confinement.
Or like the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, whose government increased police violence: from January to June 2020, law enforcement officers
killed at least 3,181 people across the country
, an average of 17 people a day, according to data from the NGO.
Nigeria, Belarus, Chile or Hong Kong are more examples of how displays of dissent were repressed.
From the frustration of the population and the feeling of having been defrauded by their governments, protest movements have emerged in all corners of the world or others that already existed have been promoted, such as the Black Lives Matter demonstrations or the
actions for equality of women
.
"The only hope has come from the protest movements of the defrauded population," Beltrán believes.
A man begs for alms in Srinagar (Indian Kashmir) F.
KHANEFE
International cooperation eroded
At a global level, cooperation between countries has been eroded by the "vaccine war" where some leaders of
rich countries hoarded most of the supplies
to leave practically no access to other countries and criticizes their "quasi-monopoly of supply World Vaccine ".
The report condemns the decision made by Donald Trump in the midst of the pandemic to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization (WHO), which "demonstrated a blatant disregard for the rest of the world."
And he cites the case of Israel, which despite its globally acclaimed vaccination strategy, "discriminated against the almost five million Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, against the obligation of Israel, as a power. occupant, to guarantee preventive measures to combat the spread of epidemics. "
Beltrán recalls that 90 countries have introduced restrictions on the export of medical supplies and how pharmaceutical companies have not been pressured to share knowledge about vaccines and
release their patents
, in an attitude that he describes as "vaccine nationalism" in a context weakening international cooperation and multilateral organizations such as the United Nations.
"As long as this is not broken from the point of view of cooperation, the world will not be able to reset. As long as there are places where the pandemic spreads, it will be a threat to that country but also to its entire region and to the entire community. international ", he concludes.
"The only possible way out of this disastrous situation is international cooperation. States must ensure that vaccines are readily available to everyone, everywhere, and that they are free wherever they are administered. Pharmaceutical companies must share their knowledge. and technology so that no one is left behind. And the members of the G-20 and international financial institutions must alleviate the debt of the 77 poorest countries in the world so that they can fight the pandemic and recover from it ", warns
Agnès Callamard
, the newly appointed Secretary General of Amnesty International, in the introduction to the document.
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