China Muzzling Covid Critics: Daily Brief

Crack down on independent Covid-19 reporting in China; women with disabilities face stigma and abuse in Afghanistan; Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh at severe risk of Covid-19 infections; precarious elections in Poland; authoritarian rot in Europe; dangerous anti-LGBT campaign in Morocco; opposition MP reportedly tortured in Uganda; Nigeria in denial; and calamitous impact on women’s health as Covid-19 pandemic continues.

Get the Daily Brief by email.

While Beijing is ramping up its global propaganda about its “achievement in the fight against Covid-19”, the Chinese government is arbitrarily detaining activists and forcibly disappearing citizen journalists for sharing critical information about the pandemic.

Afghan women and girls with disabilities are frequently socially isolated and face discrimination and sexual harassment in accessing government assistance, health care, and schools. The Covid-19 crisis exacerbates the problems.

Bangladesh is in a race against time to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the Rohingya refugee camps, but the government’s new restrictions on access to aid put the refugees at severe risk of food and water shortages and disease outbreak.

Poland’s parliament should ensure that presidential elections, scheduled for May 10, are free and fair and don’t put voters’ health at risk during the Covid-19 pandemic - or postpone the vote until that is possible.

With Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s seizure of absolute power – under the cover of the coronavirus pandemic - the European Union ceased being a bloc of exclusively democratic states. Other authoritarian-minded leaders around the EU have taken notice of the EU’s spineless response.

A campaign of “outing” LGBT people in Morocco has violated the privacy of presumed gay and bisexual men, subjecting them to potential physical harm, prosecution, the expulsion from housing, and dismissal from their jobs.

An opposition member of parliament in Uganda was reportedly tortured after security forces arrested him for distributing food to constituents.

Authorities in Nigeria have denied that Covid-19 is responsible for a surge in fatal cases of pneumonia in Kano city, the largest city in the North. Meanwhile and despite the country’s poor handling of the pandemic, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has been appointed to coordinate Economic Community of West African States’ (ECOWAS) Covid-19 response.

And lastly: As the Covid-19 pandemic rages on, the number of women unable to access family planning, facing unintended pregnancies, gender-based violence and other harmful practices could skyrocket by millions of cases in the months ahead, according to data released today by UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency.

Region / Country