Research brief from the CIVICUS Monitor.
April 2020.
On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. The spread of the pandemic, and the response of states to the crisis, have created unprecedented living conditions for much of the world’s population. A range of restrictions on freedoms has been introduced in attempts to curb the pandemic. However, some of these have had troubling impacts on human rights and the space for civil society. In many cases, they have patterned onto and reinforced existing restrictions of civic space.
States have taken measures that include emergency laws, nationwide lockdowns and restrictions on movement. But one month after the declaration of the pandemic, CIVICUS has documented several alarming civic space trends that have resulted. These are:
- Unjustified restrictions on access to information and censorship;
- Detentions of activists for disseminating critical information;
- Crackdowns on human rights defenders and media outlets;
- Violations of the right to privacy and overly broad emergency powers.