This perspective is from Democracy Digest:

The Covid-19 pandemic is unlikely to alleviate demands for more democratic governance, respect for human rights, equality, an end to austerity, and meaningful steps to combat climate change and corruption, said Clément Voule (above), the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association.

Indeed, “if anything, the economic downturn caused by the crisis, combined with financial measures that enhance inequality, will only serve to exacerbate underlying causes,” he stressed in a statement today.

The Covid-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges to human rights and democratic norms around the world, he added. His words echoed concerns that, in the words of Canada’s Globa and Mail, you don’t defeat the virus by bleeding democracy.

Read the full article here.