International Human Rights Weekly News Roundup

By Dan Olamide Eboka, Dechen Piya, and Andrea Vremis

IN FOCUS

The Digital Divide – a COVID response

MIT Technology Review

Approximately half a billion students, including at least 11 million girls, have been affected by school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an impact particularly felt by students in developing economies who are unable to study from home due to a lack of electricity, internet access and suitable technologies. Already disadvantaged in comparison to learners in ‘developed’ countries, today such students are at even greater risk of receiving an inadequate education as social-distancing rules and anti covid measures increasingly move teaching online. This was part of the focus of the 15thAnnual Internet Governance Forum 2020 (IGF), hosted by the Secretary General of the United Nations, where over 6,000 participants from 173 countriesjoined an online discussion forum to address the topic of “Internet for human resilience and solidarity”.  

The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, advocated that today’s digital technology should be “put to work for those who need it the most.” He remarked that while the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance of digital-technologies and the benefits of connectivity, “it has also exacerbated inequalities, including basic online access”. The IGF, founded in 2006, brings together stakeholders from both private and public entities, in an advisory capacity, to discuss policies and issues relating to the Internet and new media. At the Forum, Guterres stressed the importance of inclusion, urging world governments to make sure that their “response and recovery plans include increasing digital connectivity in a way that is affordable, safe and inclusive.” 

These are unprecedented times and the full magnitude of the pandemic’s impact may take years  to be fully registered.  However, technology and internet access, the key means by which to connect the world, stand as decisive factors today. The digital-divide is one of the most pressing issues in our covid world, reflecting major human rights issues of inequality, including the right to education.

World

• The Week at UN: An Afghan Midwife Delivers; Fighting in Ethiopia Erupts; the UN Reacts to US Election Results (PassBlue)
• Ensure safe and hygienic sanitation for all, UN urges (UN News)
• Corporate giants are falling down on human rights, says study (Aljazeera)
• Climate crisis: ‘Nowhere near the finish line’ – UN Chief (UN News)
• For Disabled People, Access To Assistive Tech Is A Human Right Not An Employment Perk (Forbes)
• Australian special forces involved in murder of 39 Afghan civilians, war crimes report alleges (The Guardian)

Africa

• Awaiting Justice for Police Killings in DR Congo (Human Rights Watch)
• Guinea: Post-Election Violence, Repression (Human Rights Watch)
• Sidelining Africans, the US Imposes Its Own Choice for UN Envoy to Libya (PassBlue)
• Ethiopia – Bachelet expresses alarm as Tigray conflict ‘risks spiraling out of control’ (OHCHR)
• ‘Full scale’ humanitarian crisis unfolding in Ethiopia’s Tigray: UNHCR (UN News)

Americas

• Canada Shouldn’t be Fooled by Saudi Arabia’s G20 Ploy (Human Rights Watch)
• At the UN review of US human rights, the Trump administration gets an earful (The World)
• Trans People at Risk in Honduras (Human Rights Watch)
• Haiti: End Sexual Abuse in Football (Human Rights Watch)
• Latin America, It’s Time to End Police Abuse (Human Rights Watch)

Asia

• Thai protesters target police HQ after day of violence (Reuters)
•  Hong Kong resignations ‘blatant challenge’ to authority: China (Aljazeera)

Middle East

• Egypt: Leading Rights Group Official Arrested (Human Rights Watch)
• Saudi Arabia first women’s football league kicks off (BBC News)
• Yemen: Stricken oil tanker must be inspected to avoid environmental catastrophe (UN News)
• Azerbaijan enter Nagorno-Karabakh district after peace deal (Aljazeera)

Europe

• Pushbacks in Greek Waters Put Lives at Risk (Human Rights Watch)
• Hungarian government mounts new assault on LGBT rights (The Guardian)
• Man Killed for Protecting Symbols of Peaceful Protests in Belarus (Human Rights Watch)