UN warns countries not to abuse coronavirus restrictions

The United Nations human rights office is warning countries that efforts to protect civilian populations and limit the spread of coronavirus must not morph into weapons for governments to tighten their grip on power.

“Emergency powers should not be a weapon governments can wield to quash dissent, control the population, and even perpetuate their time in power,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a statement. “They should be used to cope effectively with the pandemic – nothing more, nothing less.”

Bachelet noted that countries are within their rights to implement restrictions to protect public health, but she argued they must be “necessary, proportionate, and non-discriminatory.”

So far, U.N. officials say more than 80 countries have implemented a state of emergency linked to COVID-19 and they have since seen coronavirus-related abuses emerge in dozens of countries.

Additionally, Bachelet warned that the U.N. is aware of numerous reports that authorities across different regions have used excessive force by attempting to enforce lockdowns or curfews. In many of these cases, she noted, the people on the receiving end of the police brutality were those “belonging to the poorest and most vulnerable segments of the population,” who were in search of food or other necessities.

“Shooting, detaining, or abusing someone for breaking a curfew because they are desperately searching for food is clearly an unacceptable and unlawful response. So is making it difficult or dangerous for a woman to get to hospital to give birth,” Bachelet said. “In some cases, people are dying because of the inappropriate application of measures that have been supposedly put in place to save them.”

She also called on states to safely release people who have been detained for violating emergency measures, arguing that putting people in jail for breaking curfew has the reverse effect — it does not protect their safety or that of others. Rather, it places them in “high risk environments.”

Georgette Gagnon, the office’s director of Field Operations, described in an online policy briefing with reporters how many countries are responding excessively to the virus.

“A main concern on exceptional and emergency natural measures is what’s been described as a toxic lockdown culture in some countries. We’ve seen that police and other security forces are using excessive and sometimes deadly force to enforce lockdowns and curfews,” she said, according to a transcript of her remarks.

In particular, she pointed to the “heavy-handed” and “highly militarized” security response to the virus in places like South Africa, where they have seen authorities using rubber bullets, tear gas, water guns and whips to maintain social distancing in shopping lines.

Gagnon noted that more than 17,000 people in South Africa have been arrested as a result of coronavirus restrictions, according to data from April 10. An independent police body is examining complaints from many of these arrests, including nearly 40 cases involving allegations against officers for murder, rape, assault, discharging their firearms and corruption.

Gagnon identified other places — including the Philippines, Peru, Honduras, Sri Lanka, El Salvador, and Jordan — that are also displaying “highly militarized” responses to those who violate curfew or lockdown orders or excessive detention.

Gagnon warned that the U.N. has received reports of China attempt to censor and squash dissenting voices related to news about the coronavirus pandemic.

And in the U.S. and Europe, U.N. officials have also said they are monitoring how minorities are affected by the outbreak as well as increasing racism and xenophobia.

“Our Office is also looking in detail – not only in Europe and the United States, but also in other places as well – at a rise in racism and xenophobia targeting people based on their ethnicity,” said Peggy Hicks, director of Thematic Engagement.