In recent months, human rights have experienced a rapid proliferation in public discourse. People are unusually concerned with the status of their fundamental rights—for a good reason. Few liberal democracies have witnessed such heavy-handed state intervention and liberty rights restrictions as in 2020. Lockdowns infringe on the right to freedom
Tag: covid-19
Vaccine Diplomacy Clouds Over Southeast Asia
On January 20th, Thailand’s government filed criminal charges against Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, a 42-year old politician, for alleged violations of a draconian lèse-majesté law which protects the monarchy from insult or defamation. The offense carries harsh penalties of up to 15 years in prison. What, then, did Mr. Thanathorn do to prompt such heavy-handed
The Swedish COVID-19 pandemic strategy or: The Comeback of the “Ättestupa”
A saying attributed to the ever-chipper Joseph Stalin goes: “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” Seeing death and knowing death are two very different experiences. And it can be argued whether those in charge, untouched by the pain suffered by people who have known
How life will disappear if we continue to overexploit nature
The Amazonia and Australia’s fires, the coronavirus, and the invasion of insects in Africa: those four disasters that hit between 2019 and 2020 have one point in common; they are all due to the impact of humans on nature. The extent of the damage During the years 2019 and 2020,
The quarantine phenomenon
At a time when societal divisions seemed unequivocally pervasive, the world has stumbled into an equally unequivocal common tragedy. From those wealthy enough to seek refuge inside their yachts and private islands, to those sleeping on cardboard beds on the side of the road; from the northern icy lands to
Back from the borderlands: taming and framing COVID-19
Since Covid-19 has begun to spread across the globe, cries for re-establishing, re-enforcing, generally making less permeable, or even shutting down borders have rung louder than ever in recent years. However, this raises the question as to whether Covid-19 can be effectively combatted and curbed by these extraordinary securitization measures
