Monthly Archives: April 2020

Right On Podcast, Episode 1: When the coronavirus comes in the door, do human rights go out the window?

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In this first episode of Right On: Human Rights Activists Respond to COVID-19, we talk to three leading human rights experts: law professor Scott Burris (Temple University), Patrick Eba (UNAIDS country director, Central African Republic) and Yaqiu Wang (China researcher, Human Rights Watch) and ask them: What are the tradeoffs we should make between individual freedoms and the greater public good? What are tradeoffs we just cannot not accept? And what can we learn from over 30 years of fighting for human rights in the response to HIV and tuberculosis? Moderated by Meg Davis in Geneva.

 

The Right On! Podcast: Human Rights Activists Respond to COVID-19

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I am excited to announce the first episode of my newest podcast project: Right On! Human Rights Activists Respond to COVID-19. In the midst of the first wave of this crisis, it seems a good moment to spark a larger conversation that sustains, nourishes and grows the global health and human rights movement.

Beginning May 1, every two weeks I’ll sit down with a few inspiring activists and experts from academia, the UN and civil society – from Africa, Europe, the Americas, Asia, everywhere – to hear their views on tough ethical and legal questions and share about their lives and journeys as local and global leaders.

The first episode will air May 1: “When the virus comes in the door, do human rights go out the window?” when I’ll sit down with Prof. Scott Burris (Temple University), Dr. Patrick Eba (UNAIDS), and Yaqiu Wang (Human Rights Watch). See more about these amazing speakers here, and sign up to get a message when the episode is ready to hear online. We’ll continue the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

 

 

Webinar: Human rights in the COVID-19 response

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Public Webinar Series on the Coronavirus

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As countries scramble to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is seeing a massive roll-out of lockdowns, quarantines, and military and police deployments unlike anything we have experienced before. What does this mean for human rights – especially for people who were already marginalised and struggling to survive? Will populist and authoritarian rulers use the crisis as an excuse to expand surveillance, shutting down criticism in ways that threaten privacy, autonomy and accountability? A panel of leading experts on human rights from China, Kenya, the World Health Organization and UNAIDS explore these questions, and how the UN and civil society are responding to them.

SPEAKERS

  • Allan Maleche, Founding Executive Director of Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDS
  • Shen Tingting, HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Advocate
  • Emily Christie, Senior Advisor on Human Rights and Law, UNAIDS
  • Rajat Khosla, Human Rights Advisor, Department of Reproductive Health Research, WHO
  • Moderated by Meg Davis, Special Advisor, Strategy and Partnerships, Global Health Centre, Graduate Institute, Geneva

Human rights in the COVID-19 crisis

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陸軍104旅防疫作為

 

Taiwan military activities in the COVID-19 response. By 陸軍104旅 – https://mna.gpwb.gov.tw/post.php?id=13&message=98055

As a member of a COVID-19 working group at the Graduate Institute’s Global Health Centre, I’ve been monitoring some human rights issues emerging in the response. Here’s a quick update as of April 6, 2020. 

More than 3.9 billion people, or over 50% of the world’s population are now on some form of lockdown, with growing military and police enforcement of regulations. Human Rights Watch has warned that some authoritarian states are using the COVID-19 crisis as an excuse to expand their powers, and has documented abuses linked to enforcement of lockdown and quarantine regulations in numerous countries. In South Africa, over 17,000 people have been arrested, with reports of abuse; abuses have also been reported in the UK, Kenya, Bangladesh, the Philippines and elsewhere. As the ranks of national guards and law enforcement forces swell to include volunteers and others who may have had limited training or professional experience, managing law enforcement may cause new challenges as their deployment stretches over weeks or months. Continue reading →