African govts must protect women rights during COVID-19 pandemic

AS COVID-19 takes hold in Africa, with rising numbers of infections, governments should prioritise the protection of women human rights defenders (WHRDs) who remain vital vehicles for social change in the region.

The COVID-19 crisis has triggered disproportionate risks for marginalised and vulnerable communities globally and has made plain the structural inequalities built into our world.

Across the globe, there has been an increase in authoritarianism and state repression in response to the pandemic, and southern Africa is no exception.

Governments in the region have cracked down on dissent, activism and rights and increasingly securitised their enforcement of COVID-19 regulations. Thousands of citizens face fines, arrests, harassment and violence for violating COVID-19 regulations.

WHRDS have played a significant role in fighting against this rollback of rights. Over the past three months, an organisation, the Advancing Rights in Southern Africa Programme at Freedom House (ARISA), has spoken to WHRDs from Angola, Eswatini, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique and South Africa and participated in regional discussions to assess the impact of the pandemic and government responses on WHRDs and their work.

It found that in addition to the unrelenting nature and impact of the public health crisis, repressive government actions pose a serious threat to WHRDs and the rights of vulnerable and marginalised communities.

International human rights organisations have warned that COVID-19 measures in many countries have further restricted the space for civic activism. WHRDs in southern Africa have long faced governmentbacked threats and harassment in retaliation for their activism.

Those who speak out are routinely subjected to arrests, threats of, and acts of violence, and gendered attacks and harassment, including online.

In the context of COVID-19, this has been reinforced by the particular effects of the pandemic on women, such as the additional burden of care, restricted access to health services, and a reduction in income for women in the informal sector. WHRDs are at the forefront of mitigating these negative effects, calling for greater women’s representation in government health responses and ensuring that women’s rights are protected.

This has brought them in direct opposition to some governments and led to attacks and their exclusion from national government health responses to the pandemic.

For example, in Zimbabwe, security forces arrested, abducted and tortured three MDC Alliance activists in May, after they participated in a citizen demonstration over the lack of government assistance for poor and vulnerable communities during the pandemic.