Blog

David Griffiths is Director of the Office of the Secretary General at Amnesty's International Secretariat in London, England

The pain of the COVID-19 pandemic, a defining event of our times, will continue long after the virus subsides. When the immediate crisis is over many will have experienced unimaginable loss.

Many will have lost loved ones, huge numbers will have lost jobs and perhaps homes, and hundreds of millions will have experienced the anxiety and loneliness of social isolation.

But we will have gained something too –  a choice.

When we emerge from this collective trauma we can choose to go back to our old trajectory. Or, we can learn from this experience and make different choices for the future.

Every person on the planet has a stake in fighting this virus. As Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), put it, “we have an unprecedented opportunity to come together as one against a common enemy: an enemy against humanity”.

On 26 March, journalist Mamane Kaka Touda was released after being detained for three weeks in Niamey Prison, Niger, for publishing a post on social media regarding a suspected case of COVID-19 infection in Niamey Reference Hospital. He was given a three-month suspended sentence and was ordered to pay one franc as symbolic compensation. His lawyer has appealed the sentence.

He sends this message to Amnesty International and all those that took action on his behalf: “I want to thank and encourage those who were mobilized for my release. Arbitrary arrests and detentions will not stop us doing our work. We will keep fighting. I am grateful, thank you!”

Learn more about how you can get involved in the Urgent Network here. 

Early on during the novel coronavirus outbreak in China, the hashtag “I want freedom of speech” trended on Weibo, a Chinese microblogging platform similar to Twitter and Instagram. It was quickly removed, and anyone using it blocked.

China’s move to initially cover up the crisis and restrict valuable public health information swelled online criticism of the government. The existing system of surveillance and censorship ramped up in response. But Chinese netizens fought back, substituting “sensitive words” for alternatives on a daily basis. At one point, images of pandas were used to represent the domestic security bureau, and “Ministry of Truth” (from George Orwell’s novel 1984) substituted for the Communist Party’s Propaganda Department. Journalists, students, and activists developed a rapidly expanding alternative dictionary to keep ahead of the censors.
 
Censorship and surveillance in China are hardly news. Their impact during the current pandemic, however, highlights why the focus can’t simply be on expanding health services and enforcing quarantines by any means necessary. 

Christine McLean is ready to retire. After running a successful electrical business in Calgary for the last 20 years, the Kamloops, BC born and raised McLean planned to move back to BC with her husband, Eric. In 2014 they began laying plans to spend their retirement years living in what Christine describes as, “paradise” – a gorgeous log cabin on a large, treed lot perched above the stunningly beautiful Mitchell Bay on Quesnel Lake. For Christine, it is a place for the spirit to rest and the heart to soar.

For Secwepemc and Nuxalk activist Nuskmata (Jacinda Mack), Quesnel Lake is part of her cultural heritage. Raised in the northern Secwepemc community of Xat’sull, Nuskamata spent her youth out on the land and eventually came to work for her Secwepemc community as the Natural Resources manager. Her mother taught her that for Indigenous peoples, “our economy walks on the land and swims in the waters.” She calls the relationship between her community and the land a ‘love story’.