Instead of delivering a fair recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, states across South Asia waged a sustained assault on peaceful demonstrators, journalists, human rights defenders, judiciaries and civil society organizations in a bid to silence dissent, driving a deepening human rights crises aided by increasing impunity, said Amnesty International today as it launched its annual assessment of human rights around the world.
Amnesty International Report 2021/22: The State of the World’s Human Rights covers 154 countries and delivers a comprehensive analysis of human rights trends globally.
In 2021, human rights in South Asia were dealt a major setback as the Taliban took over Afghanistan and several states cracked down on human rights defenders, NGOs, media outlets and opposition leaders who became the targets of raids, unlawful detention and surveillance, torture, enforced disappearance, or arrests under terrorism laws or laws designed to ‘curb fake news’.
“The devastating human rights fallout following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan sets a dismal tone for the wholesale roll back of human rights across the region. This was compounded by a failure to address deep-seated inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic as vaccine inequality and neglected health systems and social protection pushed many to the brink of their capacity to survive. 2021 should have been a year of healing but sadly it brought greater instability and inequality. Far too often without any sense of accountability,” said Yamini Mishra, Amnesty International’s South Asia Regional Director.
Instead of providing meaningful space for debate and dissent on how best to meet the challenges of 2021, the continuing trend was for governments to suppress independent and critical voices, with some even using the pandemic as a pretext to shrink further the civic space.
The pandemic tore through South Asia, having a devastating impact on human rights. Governments’ efforts in countries such as Nepal were hindered by the global vaccine inequality created by collusion between pharmaceutical companies and wealthy nations.
Many states stockpiled more doses than needed, whilst turning a blind eye as Big Pharma put profits ahead of people, refusing to share their technology to enable wider distribution of vaccines. Despite enough production to fully vaccinate the world in 2021, by year’s end less than 4% of those living in low-income countries had been fully vaccinated.
To compound the suffering, under-investment and corruption contributed to the continuing inability of public health sectors across the South Asia region to respond adequately to the Covid-19 pandemic. This resulted in thousands of preventable deaths, including in India and Nepal, both of which experienced steep surges in infections during the year.
The suspension of aid to Afghanistan’s health sector by international donors resulted in the closure of at least 3,000 healthcare facilities, including Covid-19 hospitals. Access to Covid-19 vaccines was problematic in some countries.
“Despite promises and pledges to the contrary, at almost every turn, leaders and corporations opted for a non-transformative path, choosing to entrench rather than overturn the systemic inequalities behind the pandemic. Yet, people the world over have made it abundantly clear that a more just world, grounded in human rights, is what they want,” said Yamini Mishra
