UN officials today criticized the use of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak as a pretext to rationalize the crackdown on dissent and suppress critical voices. UN Secretary-General Guterres criticized “some national authorities for using the Epidemic as a pretext to deploy heavy-handed security responses and emergency measures to suppress dissent, criminalize fundamental freedoms, silence independent reporting and restrict the activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).” Guterres did not mention specific examples or name any countries.
The UN secretary-general lambasted: some countries use epidemic prevention as an excuse to suppress dissent. Guterres did not name any countries, according to a Central News Agency report today.
According to the report, UN Secretary General Guterres delivered his opening speech at the annual meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in the form of a pre-recorded video. He accused some countries of using anti-epidemic restrictions to weaken political opposition. According to Guterres, “Some national authorities have used the epidemic as a pretext to deploy draconian security responses and emergency measures to suppress dissent, criminalize fundamental freedoms, silence independent reporting and restrict the activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).”
Guterres added that in some countries, “epidemic-related restrictions have been used to subvert electoral processes, weaken the voice of opposition forces and suppress criticism.” At the same Time, according to Guterres, “human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, political campaigners and even medical professionals have been detained, prosecuted, intimidated and monitored for criticizing the government’s response to the outbreak or lack of action.”
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet also condemned the use of the epidemic as a pretext for “unlawful restrictions on public freedoms … and the use of unnecessary or excessive force” in some countries during the video conference. I think we all understand that the use of force is not going to end this epidemic, nor is putting critics in jail going to end this epidemic,” Bachelet told the UN Human Rights Council on video. …Its impact on the economy, on freedom, on society and on people is just beginning.”
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