EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA REGIONAL OVERVIEW Government responses to COVID-19 threatened a wide range of rights in Europe and Central Asia and exposed the human cost of social exclusion, inequality and state overreach. Under-resourcing of health systems and failure to provide adequate PPE exacerbated the death rates, workers faced barriers in accessing adequate social security, and public health measures disproportionately affected marginalized individuals and groups. Many governments also used the pandemic as a smokescreen for power grabs, clampdowns on freedoms and a pretext to ignore human rights obligations. In a number of countries, governments continued to erode the independence of the judiciary. Contested presidential elections in Belarus provoked a human rights emergency in which all semblance to the right to a fair trial and accountability was eroded. Unresolved conflicts in the region negatively affected freedom of movement and rights such as to health. Armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan saw all sides use banned cluster munitions on civilian areas, and commit war crimes. The space for human rights defenders shrank, through restrictive laws and a pandemic-related reduction in funding. Support organizations reported spikes in domestic violence during COVID-19 lockdowns, while such measures limited access to services. The pandemic also worsened the already precarious situation of refugees and migrants. Several countries delayed or suspended asylum requests, and many refugees and migrants were particularly at
Amnesty International Report 2020/21
risk as they were forced to live in overcrowded and unhealthy conditions. States failed to set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at a pace which would avoid the worst human rights impacts of the climate crisis. Attacks on the European human rights framework continued. Arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates persisted, despite the risk of human rights violations in the Yemen conflict.
RIGHTS TO HEALTH AND SOCIAL SECURITY The Europe and Central Asia region was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, with some 27 million cases and 585,000 deaths in the region by the year’s end, amounting to close to a third of the global total. Numbers may well have been higher due to under-reporting, which, in some cases, was deliberate as in Turkmenistan. Government responses to the pandemic varied dramatically, as did the quality of health care and data collection. This led to vastly differing reported rates of infection and death. Infections and deaths also varied widely across different groups of the population. According to the WHO, up to half of those who died due to COVID-19 in some countries were older people in long-term care homes. Health care workers and care home workers were infected and died at a greater rate than the rest of the population, sometimes owing to a failure to provide adequate and sufficient PPE. As of September, as per available data, the highest rate of death among health workers was in the UK, Russia, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, and Spain. The pandemic highlighted the weakened state of many western European health care systems after years of austerity measures, and the chronic under-resourcing of health systems in eastern Europe and Central Asia. COVID-19–related lockdown measures had an immediate impact on the economy and workers’ rights. Many workers, especially those in informal employment, experienced barriers to accessing social security schemes,
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