Event - Pushing back against the Normalization of COVID-19 State of Emergency Measures: Human Rights Defenders' Responses

American Bar Association
| Feb 04, 2022

American Bar Association logo

Please join the American Bar Association (ABA) Center for Human Rights (CHR) for the launch of its report “COVID-19 Related State of Emergency Measures: Impact and Responses” on Tuesday February 8, 2022, at 10 am (ET). As the COVID-19 pandemic struck two years ago, democratic and non-democratic countries have imposed the state of emergency in de facto and declared forms. While many measures imposed during COVID-19 were legitimate and necessary to respond to the public health crisis and address legitimate public health goals, several governments took advantage of the pandemic to enact repressive legislation or to implement vague measures that infringe upon the enjoyment of human rights and curtail civic freedoms. Although the state of emergency is temporary by its mere nature and enables countries to respond to crises, states have previously shown a tendency to operate under states of emergency’s restrictive measures indefinitely.

The launch event will examine the findings and recommendations of the report and focus on the impact of COVID-19-related state of emergency restrictive measures on the work of human rights defenders. Panelists will discuss HRDs’ effective responses to push back against the normalization of over-reaching measures that go beyond the legitimate public health goals.

The event will feature:

- Mary Lawlor, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders.

- Apar Gupta, Executive Director, Internet Freedom Foundation

- Adrian Jjuuko, Executive Director, Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum

- Adilet Alimkulov, Executive Director, Kyrgyz Indigo

Suhad Bishara, Legal Director, Adalah

- Lana Baydas, Senior Program Manager, ABA Center for Human Rights

- Moderator: Marti Flacks, Senior Fellow and Director, Human Rights Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

This event will be in English with simultaneous language interpretation in Arabic, Spanish, and ASL.

Time: Feb 8, 2022 10:00 AM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)