Since the beginning of the pandemic, health workers, journalists, human rights defenders and other frontline workers have courageously criticized, scrutinized and reported on the inadequate responses to COVID-19 and provided crucial information about the spread of the virus. For doing so, many of them have been threatened, attacked or arrested.
Development banks have poured over 150 billions of dollars into financing governments’ responses to the pandemic worldwide. However, they have failed in taking concrete and decisive actions to ensure that – in the context of the COVID-19 projects they were supporting – people could freely and safely express their opinions and raise their concerns.
The report “Unhealthy silence: Development banks’ inaction on retaliation during COVID-19”, published on July 27, 2021 by the Coalition for Human Rights in Development, ARTICLE 19 and IFEX, presents eight emblematic case studies of reprisals and statistical analysis on 335 cases of people attacked for speaking up around COVID-19 responses. It also shows how development banks have failed to uphold their own commitments and presents a set of recommendations to address reprisals.
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