Pandemic Enters Year 3: Daily Brief

As the world marks the second anniversary of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring Covid-19 a pandemic, Human Rights Watch has published a series of reports with recommendations for reforming the approach to it. While many wrongly think that the pandemic is over, and some governments are now shifting to “living with Covid” policies, it is important to remember the impacts the pandemic is still having on many individuals. Older people may feel they have to choose between staying at home or risk contracting the virus. Children have lost up to two years of formal learning. Plus, there are still billions of people around the world waiting to be fully vaccinated, as pharmaceutical companies and wealthy governments refuse to share knowledge and technology to expand the global production of more affordable vaccines.

On March 3, a Russian aircraft dropped multiple unguided bombs simultaneously, hitting an intersection in a residential neighborhood of Chernihiv, a city in northeastern Ukraine. Human Rights Watch’s latest press release details the incident, which appears to be yet another war crime. All parties to a conflict are under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to avoid or minimize civilian casualties. International humanitarian law also prohibits attacks or the threat of attacks whose primary purpose is to spread terror among the population.  

The day after the renewed Russian invasion in Ukraine, all schools across the country were declared closed – 5.7 million children between the age of 3 and 17 now don’t have access to education. But there is a way of helping children in accessing remote emergency education: telecommunication providers within Ukraine and in countries receiving refugee children should provide children free access to learning and psychosocial support, as well as prioritize the education content created by the Ukrainian Education Ministry for children to continue learning during Covid-19 school closures. Without education, children and young people can lose their future. Telecommunication providers can help prevent this - and you can help us reach them...

Israel’s Knesset has passed a law barring naturalization and residency to Palestinians from the occupied West Bank or Gaza though marriage to Israeli citizens. The law passed on Thursday replaces a similar temporary order from 2003, which has been renewed every year until July 2021. It is forcing thousands of families to either emigrate or live apart.

Good news from Uzbekistan! After years of campaigning to end forced labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton fields, the Cotton Campaign has announced the end of its call for a global boycott of Uzbek cotton. A global coalition of international human and labor rights NGOs, trade unions, brand and retail associations, working and advocating for the end of state-imposed forced labor in the harvest of Uzbek cotton, the Cotton Campaign, since 2011, has united more than 300 international brands and retailers in boycotting cotton products from Uzbekistan. With the release of the latest report of Uzbek Forum for Human Rights, a frontline partner of the Cotton Campaign, comes the news that there was no central government-imposed forced labor in the 2021 cotton harvest, achieving a long-sought-after goal.