Lawyers and rights activists around the world are suffering ongoing attacks from governments for their work during the COVID-19 pandemic, Amnesty International and the Centre for Applied Human Rights have warned.
Their report, published this week, ‘On the human rights frontline―how the UK government can defend the defenders’, is based on interviews with 82 activists and calls for the UK government to increase its efforts to protect those who defend human rights.
In Venezuela, Russia and Zimbabwe, journalists have been arrested or attacked for reporting on coronavirus and their government’s responses. In Russia, the Philippines and other countries, LGBTI+ activists have been wrongly accused of spreading infections.
Law Society president David Greene said: ‘Lawyers around the globe face harassment, prosecution, imprisonment and violence for representing their clients and upholding the rule of law.’
