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	Reimagining a Post COVID World: Principles for the Future by Mandeep Tiwana CIVICUS   Apr. 2020   In her book, 'A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights', Mary Ann Glendon tells the beautiful story of how out of the ashes of the Second World War emerged the world's pre-eminent rights framework. The Declaration recognises the inherent dignity of every human being and was born out of the shared horror felt by the international community with war crimes and genocide on an unprecedented scale. It acknowledged that fundamental change was needed to make the world fit for future generations.   Today, the COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting our lives and livelihoods in wholly unanticipated ways, testing the resilience of our social, economic and political structures.   Fundamental problems in our economies and societies stand exposed and accelerated. A global recovery effort will be needed. But it must do more than just paper over cracks. Business as usual approaches won't work. In the current scenario, we at CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance, believe that resolute action on five key areas is crucial.   First, we need to rethink how our economies are structured. The response to the pandemic has created huge economic shocks. It is estimated that cutbacks have amounted to the loss of about 195 million jobs over the first three months alone. People are experiencing lay-offs and pay cuts on a monumental scale. Small businesses built through a lifetime of striving and saving are facing ruin. Street vendors and others who work in the informal sector are facing deprivation and even starvation. Many will face ruinous healthcare bills.   All of this adds to the immeasurable human cost of losing precious lives. The pandemic has already exposed the fragilities and inequities in our economies. Those who are presently performing the most essential jobs to keep our societies running are often the least rewarded. It's estimated that half a billion people could be pushed into poverty by the impacts of COVID-19. With over 90 countries seeking assistance from the International Monetary Fund, the present economic lockdown is being characterised as the worst economic crisis in nearly a century.   To navigate a new normal, our economies will need to change in fundamental ways as too many people are adrift. Solidarity and mutual accommodation between workers and employers, property owners and tenants, and creditors and debtors, will be key. An egalitarian economic model that protects the weakest and creates stability through redistribution of resources would be a wise choice for decision makers.   Now is the time to reinforce public control over essential services such as health, test new models such as a universal basic income and try out progressive modes of taxation to create fairer societies.   Second, the needs of the most excluded should be placed front and centre. Daily wage labourers, informal workers and migrants, who are often the most impoverished, are bearing the brunt of the present crisis. Their living conditions make physical distancing and access to proper sanitation particularly difficult.   Xenophobia, denial of access to basic services and repression by law enforcement agencies against excluded groups has been compounded in the current scenario. Risks of abuse have multiplied as violence against women has spiked during lockdowns.   In several places, the pandemic has reinforced racism and discrimination against disadvantaged religious and ethnic minorities. Some LGBTQI+ people have been targeted by misinformation accusing them of spreading the virus. The elderly and those with compromised immune systems who don't have access to adequate nutrition and health care are extremely vulnerable to the ravages of the virus.   A key aspect of reconstruction efforts post COVID-19 should focus on adopting a human rights approach that seeks to reach the most disadvantaged first. Decision makers should make wise and humane choices that enhance well-being through spending on social security nets rather than military infrastructures and repressive state apparatuses.   A key aspect of reconstruction efforts post-COVID should be to dismantle systems that perpetuate cycles of poverty and exclusion, and adequately compensate the most affected.   Third, the spotlight needs to be on climate justice and safeguarding biodiversity. Lockdowns have drastically lowered pollution levels and made air breathable in several major cities. Social media is replete with pictures of mountain vistas previously hidden due to pollution, and of endangered animals emboldened to walk the empty streets of shuttered towns. In every corner of the world, the reality of environmental degradation is visible - along with the possibility of reversal.   The pandemic has provided the impetus to question our patterns of conspicuous consumption while also exposing the jarring environmental impacts of contemporary ways of life. Just last year wildfires and flooding devasted large swathes of the planet from the Amazon to Australia, causing immeasurable suffering and loss of biodiversity.   The healing of nature that we've started to see from people staying home should be encouraged and become the post-pandemic new normal. Indigenous communities around the world have long lived in greater harmony with nature. Decision makers can learn from their ways of life by prescribing practices that allow for regeneration of natural resources and focus on sustainable means of production and consumption.   Earnest implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate action to limit our emissions of greenhouse gases and control rises in temperatures can set us on a better path.   Fourth, international cooperation is crucial. The pandemic has laid bare the artificial nature of our borders and accentuated the need for cooperation - rather than competition - between countries. Nonetheless, a few political leaders have taken recourse in self-serving insular modes of nationalism. The spread of COVID-19 has shown that sharing information, technology and resources can make a huge difference in saving lives and lessening negative impacts.   The importance of multilateral institutions, especially the United Nations, which turns 75 this year, in understanding the extent of the crisis and devising responses appropriate to the scale of the pandemic cannot be overstated. Governments around the world have turned to multilateral institutions for leadership and support in the fight against the virus. COVID-19 has shown us that we need stronger international cooperation and unified actions across borders. The UN Secretary General's call for a global ceasefire is significant in this respect.   Responses to the pandemic must therefore safeguard the independence of international institutions, including the World Health Organisation, from the narrow geo-political interests of powerful states and the profit driven impulses of mega businesses. This will surely not be the last global crisis. Investments by states in well-resourced international institutions able to respond rapidly to future emergencies is crucial. Payment of dues on time to the UN would be a good first step.   Fifth, civic freedoms and unfettered civil societies are needed now more than ever. Political leaders are making life-or-death decisions and choices that could define the fate of generations. The need to access credible information, shape decisions and hold decision makers to account has never been more acute. This is a hard task, even in normal circumstances, when only three per cent of the world's population live in countries where the civic freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression are adequately protected. Constraints on civil society freedoms have been further exacerbated through declarations of emergency in over 70 countries.   In many parts of the world, delays in election processes, censorship and restrictions on press freedom in relation to COVID-19 have made it harder for people and civil society organisations to articulate their needs and question the official response to the pandemic.   Limits on freedom of movement and assembly have proliferated, disrupting public protests claiming rights and demanding justice. Law enforcement agencies have been given enhanced coercive powers, which although temporary in nature might linger.   One thing is clear: as often happens in crises, civil society organisations around the world have come forward, providing food, health care and other essential services to those in need. They have demonstrated leadership in stepping up protections for their workers and are actively contributing innovative ideas and policy solutions to pandemic responses.   In the present scenario, public safety concerns should be balanced by a rights-based approach. All emergency measures should stand the test of proportionality and necessity in a democratic society, in line with international law and the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Emergency measures should be withdrawn as soon as normalcy returns.   The post-Second World War experience has shown that crisis moments can be important turning points. COVID-19 has exposed deep fault-lines in our current way of living. Course correction through a revamped societal contract is urgently needed. The road less travelled might lead us to something beautiful. http://bit.ly/2Sg1qIF   * Mandeep Tiwana is chief programmes officer at CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance.   * In the face of Covid-19, UNESCO leads a reflection on what the future should look like.   The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has shaken societies; it has also challenged things that looked obvious. While the pandemic is still ongoing, and no one knows how it might end, it is all the more urgent to take time to think. For the pandemic is not so much an unprecedented object to reflect on – rather an occasion to reaffirm the need to think the world that it has revealed: http://en.unesco.org/forum Visit the related web page
	Dr Li Wenliang was a hero who bravely told the truth by South China Morning Post, agencies China   22 Nov. 2021   UN human rights experts today urged China to immediately release imprisoned citizen journalist and woman human rights defender Zhang Zhan on humanitarian grounds, saying her health is deteriorating rapidly and her life is in danger.   “Failure by the Chinese authorities to act swiftly and effectively could have fatal consequences for Zhang Zhan,” said the experts. “We urge them to immediately grant her unconditional release and ensure she receives the necessary medical treatment as soon as possible.”   Zhang Zhan has been detained in Pudong New District Detention Centre in Shanghai since May 2020, serving a four-year sentence on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.   She was arrested after she posted a video criticizing the Government’s handling of the outbreak of COVID-19 and was accused of spreading false information and stirring up negative sentiment about the epidemic in Wuhan.   She was convicted and sentenced in December 2020. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention deemed Zhang Zhan’s detention arbitrary in Opinion 25/2021, issued in October 2021, and called for her immediate release.   “The arrest and detention of Zhang Zhan and a number of other citizen journalists for reporting on the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, a matter of vital public interest, is deeply troubling,” the experts said.   “Not only does it represent an effort by the authorities to censor information in the public interest, but it is a worrying retaliatory measure aimed at punishing those who attempt to circumvent this censorship to share information in the interest of the public health.”   Since her arrest Zhang Zhan has gone on full and partial hunger strike in protest against her detention. She now reportedly suffers from severe malnutrition, a gastric ulcer, advanced oedema of her lower limbs and is unable to walk or raise her head without being assisted.   In late July 2021, she was admitted to a prison hospital for 11 days due to her health condition, during which time she was reportedly tied to the hospital bed and subjected to forced feeding. Her health is fast deteriorating and there are serious concerns for her life if she does not immediately receive adequate medical treatment.   “The Chinese authorities have a duty of care to Zhang Zhan as long as she is detained, and the failure to provide adequate medical treatment flies in the face of this obligation,” said the experts.   “We have previously voiced deep concerns about the denial of medical care to individuals detained who subsequently died tragically in custody or shortly after their release. We urge the authorities to release Zhang Zhan on humanitarian grounds and prevent her from meeting this same devastating fate.”   http://news.un.org/en/story/2021/11/1106262   7 Feb. 2020   Dr Li Wenliang was a hero who bravely told the truth. (SCMP, agencies)   The death of a whistleblowing Chinese doctor who was punished for trying to raise the alarm about coronavirus has sparked an explosion of anger, grief and demands for freedom of speech among ordinary Chinese.   Li Wenliang, 34, died in the early hours of Friday local time after he was infected during the fight against the outbreak, said Wuhan central hospital, where he worked, in a statement.   Li warned colleagues on social media in late December about a mysterious virus that would become the coronavirus epidemic and was detained by police in Wuhan on 3 January for 'spreading false rumours'. He was forced to sign a police document to admit he had breached the law and had 'seriously disrupted social order'.   Li was one of eight people who were detained for 'spreading rumours' about the deadly disease's outbreak - the fates of the other seven, also believed to be medical professionals, are not known.   Images of Li were ubiquitous on Weibo and messaging app WeChat including; a last photo of him lying on his hospital bed wearing a breathing mask; a photo of the humiliating police warning document on which he signed 'I understand to admit spreading false rumours'.   Many posts referenced his 'confession', with people posting photos of themselves wearing surgical masks emblazoned with the words: 'I don't understand'. Others swore 'We will not forget'.   His death crystallised the outrage and frustration felt across China over the initial cover-up of the deadly virus.   After an initial confusion about Li's condition, in which state media reports of his death were contradicted by a claim by Wuhan Central Hospital that he was merely in critical condition, the hospital said he had died early on Friday morning. This unleashed a torrent of comments on China's Twitter-like platform Weibo.   By 6am, hashtags 'Dr Li Wenliang has passed away' had 670 million views, 'Li Wenliang has passed away' had 230 million views, and 'I want freedom of speech' had 2.86 million views on Weibo. They were, however, quickly removed by the authorities.   Li's death became the top-read topic on Friday, with more than 1.5bn views, and was also heavily discussed in private WeChat messaging groups, where people expressed outrage and sadness.   Even blog posts from state media outlets mourned his death and issued veiled attacks on the Wuhan authorities who censured him.   The strong public reaction appeared to have drawn the top leadership's attention. The central commission for discipline inspection, the Communist party's powerful internal anti-corruption body, and the national supervisory commission, the country's highest anti-corruption agency, issued a one-sentence statement on their joint website that investigators will be sent to Wuhan to carry out 'a comprehensive investigation into the problems reported by the public concerning Doctor Li Wenliang'.   Fearing that the uproar over Li's death could spill over onto the streets, the authorities quickly deleted posts calling for action. A post forwarded on Wechat but now deleted said: 'I hope one day we can stand on the street holding Li Wenliang's picture'.   In Li's last blog post on Weibo, on 1 February, Li poignantly wrote: 'The test results come out positive today. Everything is settled. It is confirmed'.   The national outpouring of grief and anger quickly turned into demands for freedom of speech, but those posts were swiftly censored by China's cyber police. The trending topic #we want freedom of speech had nearly 2m views on Weibo by 5am local time, but was later deleted.   The phrase #Wuhan government owes Dr Li Wenliang an apology also attracted tens of thousands of views before it too disappeared.   Caixin, a Beijing-based financial publication, posted a black-and-white selfie of Li wearing a mask with the title 'A healthy society shouldn't have just just one voice: Coronavirus whistleblower Li Wenliang dies'.   In its Weibo post, the Economic Observer, a state-affiliated financial newspaper, demanded the vindication of all of the Wuhan 'rumour mongers'.   'Dr Li is telling us [through his death] what kind of future we will face if we lose the ability to express ourselves. In the eyes of the people, Dr Li was the hero who bravely told the truth', the post said.   'Wuhan [authorities] should vindicate them and pursue those who abused their powers to suppress the 'rumour mongers'.   Elsewhere, posts from ordinary Chinese people continue to direct their outrage towards the authorities.   'You and I both know that the ones who killed were not bats', said one. 'The virus has infiltrated those people high up', said another. 'Those who won't let you speak won't let you live either', fumed another.   Johnny Lau, a former journalist at Beijing-backed Wen Wei Po, said Li's death has become an emotional flashpoint amid the tight control of speech under Xi Jinping's rule.   'Here is a doctor with a conscience.. people on the frontline have been sacrificed but the officials have not been held to account', he said. 'It is an example of how evil has triumphed over the good'. He said the quick deletion of posts demanding freedom of speech has aroused further anger.   'The authorities are anxious that his death would trigger a huge wave of anger, so felt the need to suppress people's voices', he said.   'It is a very big crisis. China's public opinion was divided, but this time a consensus has been formed. The public share the same attitude and harbour the sentiments of sympathy and anger', said Wuhan University law professor Qin Qianhong.   The easy part of the promised investigation would be looking into whether the police violated discipline by punishing someone for revealing information about a public health crisis, said Gu Su, a political scientist with Nanjing University.   But the bigger question was who commissioned the police to punish Li, he said, particularly as the 'rumour mongering' case was aired on CCTV, signalling central government endorsement.   'So the question is, are these rumours?' Gu said, adding that the best outcome would be to clarify the definition of 'rumours'. 'It also involves what is freedom of speech because these are rights the laws should protect because it could affect people's lives and their survival'.   Qin said that if the public could not express their views, the same crisis would only recur and public confidence in the government would be difficult to restore.   'The government has lost credibility now, and if the public don't trust you any more, how can the government achieve its goals?'   Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London, said the party would not relax control of speech. 'The news of Li's death will be carefully managed and downplayed as much as possible'.   http://globalvoices.org/2020/02/07/coronavirus-death-of-whistleblower-li-wenliang-sets-chinese-social-media-on-fire/ http://rsf.org/en/news/rfs-urges-china-stop-censuring-information-about-coronavirus-epidemic http://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-exposes-the-divide-between-chinas-rich-and-poor/a-52526369 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51705199 Visit the related web page
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