MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA REGIONAL OVERVIEW Governments across the region responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by declaring states of emergency or passing legislation with excessive restrictions on freedom of expression. People were prosecuted for their legitimate criticism of their governments’ handed response to the pandemic. Health workers protested a lack protection at work, including inadequate protective gear and access to testing, but faced arrest and prosecution for raising concerns about conditions of work and public health. Governments discriminated in their responses to the pandemic, including in vaccine distribution. The region’s human rights defenders continued their work despite the high risk of imprisonment, prosecution, travel bans or other reprisals. Security forces used unlawful lethal or less-lethal force that killed or injured hundreds of people with impunity. Overcrowding and insanitary conditions put prisoners in the region at particular risk of COVID-19, a situation that was exacerbated by inadequate health care and torture or other ill-treatment in prisons. Parties to armed conflicts committed war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law. In the midst of the pandemic, the authorities restricted humanitarian aid, exacerbating the poor state of health care systems which were already depleted. Other military powers fuelled violations through illicit arms transfers and direct military support to combatants. Smaller countries continued to host over 3 million refugees from Syria but a range of push factors forced many Syrians to return. Military offensives and other fighting and insecurity in
Amnesty International Report 2020/21
several countries displaced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. Workers across the region faced summary dismissal or reduced wages as the pandemic’s economic impact caused hardship. Migrant workers were particularly vulnerable given that the kafala (sponsorship) system ties their residency to employment in many countries. Domestic violence increased, especially during national lockdown periods, and “honour” killings continued with impunity. Authorities heavily repressed the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people, arresting them for their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity and subjecting some men to forced anal examinations.
RIGHT TO HEALTH Health workers in Tunisia and Morocco organized protests against the lack of adequate protection measures provided to them, citing insufficient PPE, access to testing and failures to designate COVID-19 as an occupational disease. In Egypt and Iran, health workers faced reprisals, including arrests, threats and intimidation for voicing their concerns or other criticism of the authorities’ response. The Egyptian authorities arrested at least nine workers who expressed safety concerns or criticized the government’s handling of the pandemic and detained them pending investigations into “terrorism”-related charges and “spreading false news”. The Syrian government failed to provide adequate protective gear or access to testing for health workers. In December, the Israeli Health Ministry distributed COVID-19 vaccines exclusively to citizens and residents of Israel, including Palestinians living in illegally annexed East Jerusalem, discriminating against the nearly 5 million Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza in violation of its obligation as occupying power to ensure preventive measures to combat the spread of epidemics. In southern Libya,
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