While the world paused on Covid-19, human rights abuses accelerated

This International Human Rights Day on 10 December was unlike any other. Since last recognising this day, we have witnessed the world panic, change and adapt to an unprecedented health crisis that has left many without access to their basic human rights. Hospitals, schools, communities and businesses have taken strain as almost 1.5 million deaths have been observed worldwide.

In South Africa, we are seeing a rapid increase of cases in what looks to be a “second wave” as we close in on 1 million cases. While many countries pressed “pause” on life as we knew it in an attempt to limit movement and keep people at home, the spate of human rights violations accelerated. Covid-19 has exposed the human rights fissures present in South Africa and worsened them, creating even greater disparities and placing human rights on the back burner.

As we marked Human Rights Day in South Africa on 22 March 2020, Amnesty International published an article in News24 explaining the world we’d like to see post-pandemic, and the actions we’d like the government to take in response to the pandemic. The article called on the government and other actors involved to ensure that all responses to the outbreak complied with international human rights law and standards and that the specific human rights risks associated with any particular response are addressed and mitigated.

Unfortunately, we have seen that this has not been the case as instances of excessive use of force by law enforcement officials, deployed to help implement lockdown measures, have demonstrated this concern. The brutal killing of Collins Khosa in Alexandria, Johannesburg, on 10 April by members of the SANDF, was a direct violation of human rights law and standards.

In another instance of excessive use of force, a 16-year-old boy with a disability, Nathaniel Julius, was allegedly shot and killed by police officers after he allegedly failed to respond to their questioning of him. The need for the government and other law enforcement officials to adhere to international and domestic laws and standards on the use of force remains pertinent.

The March article raised the issue of the government’s gender-based violence (GBV) reduction efforts and questioned what had become of them. Since then, we have seen the launch of the Gender-Based Violence and Femicide National Strategic Plan in April, as well as three new bills related to GBV which the government hopes will “change the landscape in terms of how government departments, law enforcement and the courts deal with cases of violence against women and the vulnerable”.

These bills were presented to Parliament amidst an increase in cases of GBV during the national lockdown and an incidence rate almost five times higher than the global average. In the first quarter of 2020, more than 52,000 rapes were reported.

If Covid-19 has done one thing other than cause panic buying of loo roll, it has shown the importance of uniting in our fight for human rights and the ongoing struggle for equality, dignity, freedom and justice.