The COVID-19 pandemic is rapidly changing the human rights situation in the Euro-Mediterranean region. To mention a few worrying trends: the closure of international borders blocks migrants and refugees from seeking protection across borders; the economic slowdown erodes the socio-economic rights of millions of citizens; the confinement at home has increased the levels of domestic violence and abuse, and the criminalisation of social gatherings alters the power balances between societies and their governments.
Algeria is an illustrative case in point for the latter. In a few weeks, COVID-19 did what several governments had failed to achieve through repression, accommodation and dialogue: it put an end, for a while at least, to the protest movement known as Hirak – a movement that for a year had crippled the regime and undermined the government’s popular legitimacy. The development in Egypt is equally significant. There the military regime has used the COVID-19 as an opportunity to further repress human rights defenders and opposition politicians with little international condemnation. In the European continent, the governments of Hungary and Poland have also used the COVID-19 to hollow out democracy and rights. In most Western liberal democracies, emergency laws that roll back fundamental freedoms and rights have been passed with large popular support. Although it is still too early to predict how these trends will evolve, they are, indeed, worrisome.
But these negative trends do not stand alone. Alongside we also see initiatives and developments that inspire hope and trust in the future. As a global pandemic, COVID-19 has underlined the need to strengthen multilateral collaboration among states and international cooperation between businesses and societies. Technology companies are the slipping new and stronger tools for online communication that dwarfs current solutions. And the environment has never been better.
In EuroMed Rights we have monitored and documented these and related developments. We have spoken out when we saw duty bearers transgress the rights we work to promote and protect, and we have supported our members and partners whenever they came under pressure. With our COVID-19 newsletter, we wish to create an outlet that provides systematic updates about current changes and possible opportunities that emerge from the pandemic.
We believe that such a newsletter will not only boost the awareness about the challenges and opportunities for further promoting human rights. We also believe that it will inspire our stakeholders to take further action at this crucial moment in the region’s history.
In this first issue we have included four short features in which we focus on how the pandemic is impacting the human rights situation: the fate of jailed human rights defenders in Egypt, limited access to healthcare for migrants and refugees, protective measures against violence against women, and no amnesty for Erdogan’s critics in Turkey.
This newsletter also contains updates about what have done over the past weeks as EuroMed Rights on this issue, as well as an update about significant actions taken by our members and partners.
Enjoy the read!
Rasmus Alenius Boserup
Executive Director