Almaty. February 23. KazTAG - in a number of countries, the fight against coronavirus infection (CVI) is used for fraud in elections, criticism and opposition, the press service of the United Nations (UN) reports.
"Today in many countries, human rights defenders, journalists, political activists and even medical workers are delayed, prosecution, intimidation and surveillance for criticizing the reaction or the absence of a government reaction to a pandemic. The restrictions associated with the pandemic are used to undermine the electoral processes, the weakening of the opposition speeches and criticism, "said the UN Secretary General Anthony Guterry at the UN Security Council session on Human Rights.
He recalled that in 2020 he made a call to actions in the field of human rights.
"Today I speak to you with a feeling of urgent need to do even more in order to realize our call for actions in the field of human rights. I would like to focus on two areas, in which the urgent need for actions are felt taking into account the huge scale of the problems. First, it is Beach racism, discrimination and xenophobia. And, secondly, it is gender inequality - the most common of all violations of human rights, "the Secretary General noted.
He added that these "manifestations of evil" are the legacy of colonialism and the consequence of the Patriarchate remaining for thousands of years.
"In the incitement of racism, anti-Semitism, antimuslim rhetoric, violence against some communities of Christian minorities, homophobia, xenophobia and women's not new. But, at the same time, such incitement of hatred has become more open, easily feasible and global, "the UN heads stressed.
Considering "Mold of Racism, which corrosive societies," Guterrish called on to intensify the fight against reviving neo-Nazism, the ideas of the superiority of the White race and terrorism on racial and ethnic soil.
"The danger of these movements, motivated by hatred, increases every day. Based on the ideas of the superiority of the White race and Neo-Nazism, they become a threat of a transnational nature, "added Guterry.
Speaking that the pandemic clearly showed the interrelated character of the entire spectrum of human rights - civil, cultural, economic, political and social, UN Secretary General and UN High Commissioner Michel Bachelets stressed that this disease turned the life of hundreds of millions of families.
"In the world, for the first time in many decades, the scale of extreme poverty is growing. Under the pretext of the pandemic power of some countries, power measures apply to suppress dissent and violations of fundamental freedoms, "the UN noted.
Bachelet warned about the serious consequences of the practice of neglect of human rights.
"I think it is clear to everyone that, applying power methods, does not overcome this pandemic. The imprisonment of critics in prison will not put an end to this pandemic. Illegal freedoms of freedoms, excessive use of emergency measures and unnecessary or excessive use of force not only are useless and unprincipled - they restrain the participation of the public in making decisions, which should be based on a reasonable policy, "the UN High Commissioner said.
UN officials in their speeches called on the authorities of all countries to do everything possible to expand the access of the population to the truthful information about COVID-19, which could save their lives. The UN heads expressed regret that the disinformation often spreads today, including those who are in power.
"The COVID-19 pandemic lighting is concerned more generally in terms of increasingly penetrating digital platforms, data use and abuse. Each of us is going a huge array of information. However, we do not have real access to this array. We do not know how this information is collected who she is collected and for what purposes, "the UN Secretary General said.
It fears that these data are used for commercial purposes - for advertising, marketing and reinforcement of the results of corporations, which contribute to increasing concentrations of wealth and an increase in inequality.
"Data on us is also used to form our consciousness and manipulate our perception, and this happens completely unnoticed by ourselves. Governments can use these data to control the behavior of their own citizens, which disrupts the human rights of individuals or entire groups. All this is not science fiction and not an anti-astope forecast for the XXII century, "Guterish warned.
He called for a serious discussion of this problem in the field of digital cooperation.
"With regard to digital technologies, we need a safe, equitable and open future, free from interference with the personal life and infringement of dignity," the UN heads stressed.
Saying that many people in the world suffer from the epidemic of human rights violations, the Secretary General added that there are extremely disturbing situations in some of them - in some of them for a very long time.
"It's time to act. Conduct transformations. Rebuild. Recoverable (after a pandemic - KazTag) on the principle of "better than it was", guided by human rights and providing human dignity for everyone, "Guterry stressed.