Coronavirus

Members of the Oromo Ethiopian community in the US demonstrate in Washington DC, on July 17, 2020, in support the Oromo minority in Ethiopia.

Ethiopian Democracy Veers Off Track: What’s at Stake

Meaningful security and economic partnership with the US requires a stability that is authentic, sustainable, consensus-driven, and democratic.

Sep. 28, 2020 Seenaa Jimjimo

A young boy walks in front of a grafittied wall spelling out the symptoms of and ways to avoid Coronavirus in Mathare informal settlement on July 10, 2020 in Nairobi, Kenya.

Access to Information During a Pandemic – A Matter of Life or Death

Sept. 28 marks the first International Day for Universal Access to Information. As the pandemic reveals, access to timely and accurate information has never been more vital. And…

Sep. 25, 2020 Inés Pousadela

U.S. Attorney General William Barr removes his face mask before testifying to the House Judiciary Committee in the Congressional Auditorium at the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center July 28, 2020 in Washington, DC.

Bill Barr’s Misguided View of US History

His grumble that coronavirus-related restrictions constitute the greatest civil liberties violation since slavery ignores a litany of government abuses.

Sep. 24, 2020 Aryeh Neier

Human Rights activists attend the birthday party of jailed Iranian Human Rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, outside the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran on May 31, 2019 in The Hague, Netherlands.

Trapped in a Pandemic: Iran’s Political Prisoners Face COVID-19 Behind Bars

Political prisoners in Iran were already living in inhumane and unsanitary conditions, but now the coronavirus is spreading rapidly through prisons.

Sep. 24, 2020 Tzvi Kahn

OECD Chart of United States and South Korea harmonized unemployment rates from Oct. 2019-July 2020. The chart shows the two countries had approximately the same unemployment rate before March 2020, around 3.5% to 4%. By April 2020, the unemployment rate in the U.S. rose to about 14%, while South Korea stayed approximately the same. The rate in South Korea peaked at 4.5% in May 2020, and remained between 3 and 4.5% thereafter. The U.S. rate decreased after April, but has not returned anywhere close to the levels it was at before. In July 2020, the rate remains over 10%.

Mass Job Losses and Other Economic Costs of President Trump’s Inaction on Coronavirus

An economic analysis of the impact of federal mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic, including effects on unemployment and recession.

Sep. 15, 2020 Ryan Zamarripa

An aerial view San Quentin State Prison on July 08, 2020 in San Quentin, California.

Hardwired Against Change: Race, Incarceration, and COVID-19

"Given the unique risks of exposure, infection, and death in prisons, jails and detention centers, challenging carceral secrecy is even more important than ever in the midst of…

Aug. 26, 2020 Andrea Armstrong

A person is transported into the emergency room of the Elmhurst Hospital on April 22, 2020 in the Queens borough of New York City.

COVID-19 Is a Threat to National Security. Let’s Start Treating It as Such.

An effective national response to COVID-19 begins with elevating the pandemic from public health emergency to national security crisis.

Aug. 6, 2020 Colin P. Clarke and Louis Klarevas

A member of the Syrian Civil Defence (The White Helmet) checks the rubble and debris at a medical centre following reported shelling by the Syrian government, in the Syrian town of Hbeit in the southern countryside of the rebel-held Idlib province on April 30, 2019.

Bashar al-Assad is Criminally Responsible for Syria’s COVID-19 Crisis

Syrians who die as a result of the inaccessibility to treatment or protection against COVID-19 may also result in criminal responsibility.

Aug. 5, 2020 Roger Lu Phillips and Layla Abi-Falah

An official waves the Cambodian national flag over a helicopter landing marker for Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen to visit passengers on board the Westerdam cruise ship, in Sihanoukville on February 14, 2020, where the liner on February 13 docked after being refused entry at other Asian ports due to fears of the novel coronavirus.

Opportunism, COVID-19, and Cambodia’s State of Emergency Law

Editor’s Note: This piece is part of Just Security‘s Assessing Emergency Powers During #COVID-19 series, which aims to highlight and give voice to legal and civil society…

Aug. 3, 2020 Randle DeFalco

A passenger in a face mask off a Melbourne to Sydney flight speaks to media at Sydney domestic airport on July 07, 2020 in Sydney, Australia.

False Information in the Time of Coronavirus: Law and Regulation in the U.S. and Australia

What laws and regulations exist in the U.S. and Australia to address false or misleading information in the media?

Aug. 3, 2020 Peter Bartlett and Dougal Hurley

Out of the Spotlight: COVID-19 and the Global South

Western media attention has remained largely fixed on the Global North, even though the pandemic has become a truly global phenomenon. ... Here, I highlight some of the challenges…

Jul. 23, 2020 Eden Lapidor

A worker stands in a full body protective suit at the Parque Serafín Cemetery Crematorium in Bogota on July 4, 2020.

Colombian Peace Efforts on Life Support Amid the COVID-19 Response

In the context of COVID-19 emergency measures, Latin American democracies are like high-risk patients that suffer from at least four underlying conditions: authoritarian trends,…

Jul. 9, 2020 Nelson Camilo Sánchez