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Newsletter 135 19 November 2021
Open Societies
& Closed Borders
This week we return to COVID-19's impact on democracy worldwide after our focus on COP26 in recent weeks. We're reflecting on how the pandemic has affected the idea and reality of open societies, both internally free from authoritarian governance modalities such as repression of dissent and surveillance, and the globalised notion of shared space and cross-border communication. We see concerns about everything from vaccine mandates for parliamentarians in Latvia and the Australian state of Victoria, to digital repression and disinformation, to government and public intimidation of journalists worldwide (see e.g. recent footage from Prague). A larger issue in Victoria has been a draft law seeking to establish a new framework for health emergencies ("the Pandemic Bill"), which has prompted pushback from the opposition and non-partisan analysts as well as spurring thousands to protest, with a concerning appearance of violent imagery and death threats against the premier, apparently based on misinformation and conspiracy theories regarding what the draft law contains. It provides a lesson for all democratic governments seeking to overhaul legal frameworks for health emergencies, as well as focusing our minds on the intensifying effects of conspiracy extremism on public life and how we can build resilient democracies.
As discussed in previous newsletters, COVID-19 has led to concerns about democracies looking inward. Australia has been dubbed "the new hermit kingdom" for its extreme border policies since March 2020, creating 'temporary minorities' by stranding citizens and temporary visa-holders both inside and outside the country with little recourse to challenge the policy (or lack thereof) - a new campaign and multiple petitions are seeking fairer treatment. While the Australian issue might be resolved soon, global vaccine inequality is set to impact countries across the Global South for the long-term. A 'Great Divide' has opened up on this crucial issue, with 63% of high-income countries' populations vaccinated compared to just 1.4% of low-income countries. A lack of leadership, especially in leading democracies, is set to cement pre-existing global barriers affecting travel as well as exacerbating wider global economic and health inequalities.
In this Round-Up we're highlighting:
- Report Launch for International IDEA Global State of Democracy 2021
- Fresh analysis of Victoria's new pandemic laws
- New campaign seeking equity in Australia's travel restrictions
- Carnegie Endowment collection Issues on the Frontlines of Technology and Politics
- Upcoming webinars on International IDEA's flagship report launch
- Additional items in the Super-Blog and the Policy Hub
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International IDEA Flagship Report Launch:
The Global State of Democracy 2021
International IDEA’s “The Global State of Democracy: Building resilience in a pandemic era” report aims to influence the global debate and analyses current trends and challenges to democracy, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. It offers specific policy recommendations to spark new and innovative thinking for policymakers, governments and civil society organizations supporting democracy. The organisation will host a series of events in November and December comprising the global and regional report launches and findings.
Next Week
Monday International IDEA: ‘The Global State of Democracy Report 2021: Building Resilience in a Pandemic Era - Global Launch’ - 22 November 2021, 15.00-17.00 (CET)
Regional Launches:
Wednesday (Australia) 24 November 2021, 16.00-17.30 (AEDT)
Thursday (Stockholm) 25 November 2021, 15.00-17.00 (CET)
- More events in December.
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Victoria: Pandemic Management Bill
With Victoria’s current state of emergency set to expire on 16 December and unable to be extended, the Victorian Government has introduced a proposed new pandemic law – the Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (Pandemic Management) Bill ("the Pandemic Bill") - to support the ongoing management of COVID-19 and any future pandemics. The Premier's claim that the new legislation would provide a greater degree of transparency, accountability and oversight - especially now that Australia is reopening up and living with the pandemic has been challenged by the opposition, calling the new laws "draconian".
Non-partisan analysts including the Centre for Public Integrity, the Human Rights Law Centre, Law Institute of Victoria, Liberty Victoria and public law academics have also argued that the Bill may be a significant improvement on the current pandemic law in terms of safeguarding democracy and human rights, including greater considerations for transparency around key decision-making, personal information protection, better oversight and scrutiny processes, and a much fairer approach to dealing with health order breaches. However, they also strongly proposed further amendments to be implemented to the Bill, particularly more parliamentary participation, to ensure a best-practice approach and to fully incorporate all the lessons of the last 20 months:
LAW INSTITUTE OF VICTORIA, ‘LIV Position Paper in response to the Public Health and Wellbeing (Pandemic Management) Bill 2021’ (10 November 2021)
CENTRE FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY, ‘Welcome changes: new pandemic laws worthy of cautious optimism’ (3 November 2021)
LIBERTY VICTORIA, ‘Liberty Victoria Response to Pandemic Specific Legislation’ (3 November 2021)
Bianca HALL, ‘What’s in the bill? Your pandemic legislation questions answered’ The Age (13 November 2021)
RMIT ABC FACT CHECK, ‘Would Victoria's proposed pandemic laws give Daniel Andrews the power to declare a pandemic without justification?’ ABC News (12 November 2021)
William PARTLETT, 'Victoria’s draft pandemic law is missing one critical element – stronger oversight of the government’s decisions' The Conversation (26 October 2021)
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Australia: Trapped Behind Borders
in 'the New Hermit Kingdom'
Among the democratic deficits in Australia's response to Covid has been the unequal treatment of the rights of 'temporary minorities' such as Australians stranded abroad as well as temporary visa-holders trapped in the country due to border controls. The lack of a nationwide bill of rights has left individuals with little avenue to challenge policies and legislation, marginalised the importance of proportionality in the formation and implementation of policy, and raised difficult questions about citizenship.
Campaign to Allow Non-Citizens to Travel
Recent announcements by the federal and state governments to lift restrictions on travel in and out Australia have been limited to citizens and permanent residents, giving no indication about how the government plans to address the situation facing temporary visa-holders; arguably the demographic most affected by the travel bans. The Human Rights Law Centre has launched a campaign and a new report ‘Still left behind’ outlining a five-step plan for the federal government to follow for a fair and inclusive easing of Australia’s travel restrictions. Read a summary here.
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Carnegie Endowment Series: Technology, Politics & Covid-19
Recent global trends in technological advancement has disrupted international politics, imparting new dimensions to the authoritarian playbook. Covid-19 has further exacerbated the issue, with many countries using the pandemic as pretext to adopt restrictive measures across the digital/online sphere, including information manipulation, communication censoring, invasion of the right to privacy, and more. Representing the first effort by the Digital Democracy Network to describe challenges to democratic governance posed by digital technology, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace relased a collection titled 'Issues on the Frontlines of Technology and Politics'. It highlights four themes, one of which focuses on the pandemic impact on national and regional responses involving digital repression, and is discussed in the following analyses:
CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT, ‘COVID-19 Intensifies Digital Repression in South and Southeast Asia’ (19 October 2021)
CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT, ‘COVID-19 Digital Restrictions in Africa’ (19 October 2021)
CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT, ‘Intrusive Surveillance After the Coronavirus Pandemic’ (19 October 2021)
CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT, ‘Disinformation Is Not Simply a Content Moderation Issue’(19 October 2021)
CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT, ‘Online Disinformation Against AAPI Communities During the COVID-19 Pandemic’ (19 October 2021)
See also:
Blog post Stephen ROBERTS & Patty KOSTKOVA, ‘Disease Surveillance, Digital Futures, and Data-Sharing in a World ‘After’ COVID-19’ GP Opinion (10 November 2021)
Policy analysis LIBERTIES, Report: ‘Do EU Governments Continue to Operate Contact Tracing Apps Illegitimately?’ (4 November 2021)
Policy analysis COLLABORATION ON INTERNATIONAL ICT POLICY IN EAST AND SOUTHERN AFRICA (CIPESA), ‘Assessing the Effects of Covid-19 Misinformation Laws on Freedom of Expression’ (29 October 2021)
Policy analysis LIBERTIES, ‘What Did Europe Learn About COVID-19 Contact Tracing Apps: Policy Brief’ (28 October 2021)
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Blog Posts
New blog posts this round include items uploaded to our Super-Blog prior to our previous, temporary climate change/COP26-focused newsletters (CLIMATE-DEM):
Verfassungsblog
Symposium: International Pandemic Lawmaking
Ching-Fu LIN & Chuan-Feng WU, ‘Towards Member-driven International Pandemic Lawmaking’ (26 October 2021)
Sara (Meg) DAVIS, Mike PODMORE & Courtenay HOWE, ‘The Right to Participation in Global Health Governance: Lessons Learned’ (21 October 2021)
Sharon BASSAN, ‘A Shared Responsibility Model’ (19 October 2021)
Ellen ‘T HOEN, Ciara STAUNTON, Paul OGENDI, Cassandra EMMONS & Pedro VILLARREAL, ‘Webinar: Addressing Scientific Innovation through Pandemic Lawmaking’ (19 October 2021)
Posts
Agustín Ruiz ROBLEDO, ‘Legislative Activity and Inactivity in the COVID Pandemic in Spain’ (10 November 2021)
Emilio Peluso Neder MEYER & Thomas BUSTAMANTE, ‘A Portrait of Bolsonaro’s Crimes Against Humanity: The Legislative Investigative Committee Report on the COVID-19 Pandemic in Brazil’ (5 November 2021)
Institute for Strategic Dialogue
Elise THOMAS, 'The Threat of Conspiratorial COVID-Sceptic Extremism' (16 November 2021)
LSE Blogs
Madison IMIOLA, Peter FINN & Rob LEDGER, ‘What Happened?: COVID-19 will have a lasting impact on the future of US elections’ USAPP Blog (8 November 2021)
Peter FINN, Madison IMIOLA & Rob LEDGER, ‘What Happened?: Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic ensured that he lost, rather than was defeated in, the 2020 election’ USAPP Blog (2 November 2021)
Peter FINN, Madison IMIOLA & Rob LEDGER, ‘What Happened?: The 2020 election can’t be understood without considering the role of the COVID-19 pandemic’ USAPP Blog (25 October 2021)
I·CONnect
Corinne LUQUIENS, Nefeli LEFKOPOULOU, Eirini TSOUMANI & Guillaume TUSSEAU, ‘France | 2020 Developments in Constitutional Law’ (29 October 2021)
AfricLaw
Paul MUDAU, ‘2021 local government elections, voter education and COVID-19 in South Africa’ (28 October 2021)
Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right Blog
Alexander Reid ROSS, ‘Bolsonaro and Modi are at a COVID Crossroads’ (27 October 2021)
Miranda CHRISTOU, ‘Alt-Medicine: How the Far Right Weaponizes Vaccine Hesitancy’ (27 October 2021)
Involve UK Blog
Charlotte OBIJIAKU, ‘Practitioners’ workshop: Back to the Future - what do we want to take into the future of deliberation?’ (22 October 2021)
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Policy Briefs
New analyses this week include pandemic-democracy pieces covering multiple countries worldwide (India, Tunisia, Wales, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Italy, Turkey and Canada), all of which can be found in our Policy Hub:
POLITICAL CAPITAL, ‘COVID-9.11: Transformation and anti-Western radicalization of the anti-vaccination movement in Hungary’ (15 November 2021)
EAST ASIA FORUM, ‘COVID-19 exposes India’s fragile federalism’ (5 November 2021)
WORLD POLITICS REVIEW, ‘For Europe’s Far Right, Opposing Vaccine Mandates Isn’t Paying Off’ (4 November 2021)
ICYMI - October
CONSTITUTIONNET, ‘On the fragility of new democracies: Tunisia between constitutional order and disorder’ (30 October 2021)
OPENDEMOCRACY, ‘The Welsh government is escaping scrutiny over COVID-19’ (30 October 2021)
ASIAN NETWORK FOR FREE ELECTIONS (ANFREL) & ASSOCIATION OF WORLD ELECTION BODIES (A-WEB), ‘AESF 5 Memorandum: The Way Forward for Elections Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic’ (27 October 2021)
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, ‘The Toll of Bolsonaro’s Disastrous Covid-19 Response’ (27 October 2021)
ELECTORAL INTEGRITY PROJECT, ELECTORAL MANAGEMENT NETWORK & INTERNATIONAL IDEA, ‘Parliamentary Elections under Covid-19: The Case of Cabo Verde’ (26 October 2021)
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, ‘Cambodia: Vaccine Mandates Raise Rights Concerns’ (26 October 2021)
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, Report: ‘Muzzled and unheard in the pandemic: Urgent need to address concerns of care and health workers in Italy’ (22 October 2021)
FORUM OF FEDERATIONS, ‘Annual Report-2020-2021’ (22 October 2021)
COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, Transcript: ‘Darryl G. Behrman Lecture on Africa Policy: The Impact of COVID-19 on Democracy in Africa’ (20 October 2021)
ISTANBUL POLICY CENTRE, ‘Politics of Pandemic Management in Turkey’ (October 2021)
V-DEM INSTITUTE, Working Paper: ‘Pandemic Backsliding – A Closer Look at Canada’ (October 2021)
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COVID-DEM is You
Every day we work with people worldwide to build this platform for helping us understand how the pandemic is challenging and re-shaping democracy globally, and the many ways we can defend and improve our democracies. Our sincere thanks to every one of you who has helped us to develop COVID-DEM into what it is today. Don't hesitate to send us your work and suggestions, to coviddem@gmail.com or through our online form.
Dr Tom Gerald Daly
Director
Find out more about Tom here.
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