"COVID-19 l State action must be human rights compliant and protect human rights defenders", 02 April 2020

In face of the current health crisis, a growing number of States have issued state of emergency declarations, and adopted confinement and other measures that may restrict human rights and fundamental freedoms. Global civil society has documented an alarming number of acts of persecution against human rights defenders, including harassment, surveillance, and threats, most often carried out in the guise of implementing emergency measures. Meanwhile, vulnerable populations, including women, people on the move, and minorities, are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and the adverse human rights impacts of government measures, while being isolated and excluded from decision-making around effective responses to COVID-19… many patterns of violations raise grave concerns: in China, the State has weaponised confinement measures to silence and isolate its dissenting voices; the Hungarian government has granted itself near-unlimited power in the name of COVID response; journalists reporting on the pandemic are detained and charged in Venezuela; in Bahrain, a royal amnesty releasing prisoners on humanitarian grounds has flagrantly excluded jailed human rights defenders…

ISHR has compiled…recommendations and guidance … (updated weekly), to inform and support local civil societies and human rights defenders as they track and monitor their government's action to combat the pandemic.