Why pandemic is a great threat to human rights

A police officer whipping a motorist recently in Nakuru when the law enforcers caught up with him after the curfew hours. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

“God and the people are the source of all power … I have taken it, and damn it, I will keep it forever,” declared Haiti’s François “Papa Doc” Duvalier in 1963. And so he did, remaining president until his death in 1971, whereupon he was succeeded by his son, Jean-Claude (“Baby Doc”), who extended the dictatorship for another 15 years.

This may seem like ancient history. But not to me. My family is Haitian, and though we immigrated to the United States during my childhood, we always seemed to remain within reach of the Duvaliers’ ruthless regime. I have never lost sight of the brutal lessons Haitians learned under the Duvaliers, including how they regularly used natural disasters and national crises to tighten their stranglehold on power.

We must heed that lesson today. Covid-19 is a threat not just to public health, but also to human rights. Throughout history, crises like the current one have served as a convenient pretext for authoritarian regimes to normalise their tyrannical impulses. My parents witnessed this firsthand in Haiti. We are all seeing it again now.

The new threat started in China, where an already authoritarian government’s initial effort to cover up the epidemic allowed it to spread globally. But China is hardly alone. In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government instituted a 21-day lockdown with only four hours’ notice, providing no time for millions of the world’s poorest people to stockpile food and water. Worse, Indian law-enforcement authorities have since been using the lockdown to increase their targeted discrimination against the country’s Muslims.

Meanwhile, in Kenya and Nigeria, police and military forces have pummeled anyone who does not seem to be complying quickly enough with social-distancing protocols. In Israel, the authorities have joined around two dozen other governments in stretching privacy protections to the breaking point, by using cellphone data to track citizens’ movements. And in Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has been consolidating power for years, has pushed through a law that effectively codifies his status as an absolute dictator.

The response to these violations from the world’s democracies has barely risen to the level of a whisper. But lest Americans think themselves immune from such power grabs, they should consider that, in late March, the US Department of Justice asked Congress for the power to detain American citizens (not just undocumented immigrants) indefinitely without trial.

Governments that adopt such measures justify them as necessary to combat the pandemic. But history shows us that illiberal leaders rarely, if ever, allow their emergency powers to expire. To be sure, every government has a duty to respond forcefully to the unfolding public-health calamity, and doing so might require temporary but significant restrictions on citizens’ actions. But many of the policies adopted by authoritarian leaders in recent weeks are not just anti-democratic; they are also counterproductive in fighting the pandemic.

For example, far from preventing the spread of disease, suppressing press freedoms makes it far more difficult to raise awareness about how the public should respond. Likewise, detaining civilians without trial undermines trust in government precisely when it is needed most. And cancelling elections removes any incentive political leaders have to place the public’s interests first.

As we do our best to fight Covid-19, we also must do everything we can to protect the health of our democracies. More to the point, we must recognise that, in many ways, defending public health and defending democracy are two fronts in the same battle.

For starters, we must use every tool available to protect civil liberties. While the pandemic calls for social distancing, it does not justify police brutality and abuse of government power.

The instant that political leaders start restricting free speech and the right to protest, or spurn checks on their power, the risk of a slide into authoritarianism becomes real.

Governments that start to test these limits must be held accountable immediately. Sadly, too many of those in power will never take it upon themselves to protect our rights. We must do that for ourselves.

[Mr Gaspard, a former United States ambassador to South Africa, is President of the Open Society Foundations.]