During the past months, as the world has battled the coronavirus, authoritarian leaders across the globe have seized the opportunity and used the health crisis as an excuse to increase their own powers. These increases have often been poorly disguised as emergency measures necessary to take effective action against the virus, and have often given leaders powers to sideline democratic checks and balances and sometimes even rule by decree.
In a statement to the 44th session of the UNHRC, Liberal International has called on the international community to take action to ensure that any measures taken to combat the virus do not unduly violate human rights, or cause permanent damage to crucial elements of functioning societies such as free media and a functioning political opposition.
The statement also calls on the United Nations to closely monitor any extraordinary measures put in place to fight the virus, and to speak up when such measures violate human rights or other aspects of international law.
Main Image: UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré, Creative Commons 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
