Seite - 552 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
Bild der Seite - 552 -
Text der Seite - 552 -
VULNERABLE552
COVID-19 Ordinances, Law Enforcement, and Civil Liberty
Most African countries have historical legacies of dictatorship. Even
in the best of times, civil liberties in Africa are fraught. Since the
1990s, most of these nations have transitioned to fledgling, fragile
democracies.42 COVID-19 emergency ordinances have resulted in
many citizens across the continent being subjected to overzealous law
enforcement personnel undermining the rule of law.43 In some cases,
citizens have been murdered.44 Draconian law enforcement and leg-
islative power grabs of various guises have crept into the polity on
the back of COVID-19.45 Details of rapidly rolled out emergency ordi-
nances have been foggy, as they are not broadly disseminated at the
time of enforcement. And access to legal services has been truncated.46
The result is that, in many cases, the most vulnerable are victimized
several times over—a dynamic that needs to be fully documented and
exposed in order to eliminate impunity, whereby civil liberties are
violated in the name of public health in a pandemic.47
Lessons, Opportunities in the Gloom of COVID-19
COVID-19 has shaken the foundation of global public health, exposed
both the fragility of industrialized countries’ pandemic prepared-
ness and a moment of vacuum in global leadership, caused chiefly
by the palpable abdication of the U.S. and its ongoing blame game
with China. Among other considerations, those have undermined the
institutional effectiveness of the WHO and related organizations. One
42. See Landry Signe, “The Tortuous Trajectories of Democracy and the Persistence
of Authoritarianism in Africa” (2013) Stanford Center on Democracy,
Development and the Rule of Law Working Paper 147, online: SSRN <https://
ssrn.com/abstract=2237354>.
43. See “UN Raises Alarm About Police Brutality in COVID-19 Lockdowns”, Al
Jazeera (28 April 2020), online: <https://bit.ly/3bp63Xs>.
44. Ibid.
45. See Dima Samaro & Emna Sayadi, “Tunisia’s Parliament on COVID-19; an
Initiative to Fight Disinformation or an Opportunity to Violate Fundamental
Rights?”, Access Now (1 April 2020), online: <https://bit.ly/2SDXfq7>; Adamu
Abuh et al, “Pressure Mounts on Reps to Suspend Infectious Disease Bill”, The
Guardian Nigeria News (5 May 2020), online: <https://bit.ly/2SGapTO>.
46. See “Lockdown: Lawyers Sue FG, Demand Categorization of Legal Practice
as Essential Service”, Vanguard News Nigeria (5 May 2020), online: <https://bit.
ly/2YAjVLY>.
47. See Oluchi Aniaka, “Law and Ethics of Ebola Outbreak in Nigeria” (2014), online
(pdf): SSRN <https://bit.ly/2AdM15q>.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Titel
- VULNERABLE
- Untertitel
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Autoren
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Verlag
- Ottawa Press
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Abmessungen
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Seiten
- 648
- Kategorien
- Coronavirus
- International