COVID-19 Restrictions & (Re)Definition of Gender Roles in Nigeria


This post by Azizat Omotoyosi Amoloye-Adebayo is reprinted with acknowledgment of its original publication in the Blog of the Institute for African Women in Law.  Dr. Amoloye-Adebayo is a member of the Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin, Nigeria and a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. She was a member of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies’ Young Scholars Fellowship on Religion and the Rule of Law class held at Christ Church, Oxford, UK, in 2019.  The views expressed in this entry belong solely to the author.

What happens when the “private” space becomes the “public” and ‘only’ professional space?

As of early February 2020, there was no reported case of Covid-19 infection in Nigeria. But by 21 April 2020, there were 665 reported cases and 22 deaths. On 17 April 2020, Nigeria recorded the death of the first high ranking government official, Alhaji Abba Kyari, the Chief of Staff to the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. By this time, the narrative of the contagion had changed from one of ‘contact with persons with travel history’ to that of community spread, at least within the cosmopolitan state of Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory Abuja. The testing procedure had to be stepped up from contact tracing to community testing which led to the discovery of more cases. (more…)

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COVID-19 and Human Dignity

 

This Conversation was developed from contributions to an international Webinar held 16 April 2020: Freedom of Religion or Belief, COVID-19 and Human Dignity , Episode 2 of the Webinar Series COVID-19 and Freedom of Religion or Belief. Panelists in this Webinar addressed the following and other questions: How is this global emergency affecting our concept of human dignity? How can we ensure that restrictions to civil liberties that we accept for our collective safety respect human dignity and human rights? (more…)

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COVID-19 Requires an Urgent Response Grounded in Human Rights and Human Dignity


Ewelina U. Ochab is a legal researcher, human rights advocate and author, regularly contibuting to such outlets at Forbes. She is co-founder of the Coalition for Genocide Response. This blogpost arises from her role as moderator of a international panel for a Webinar held 16 April 2020 [1]  and is part of a Talk About Conversation on COVID-19 and Human Dignity.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been shaping and reshaping our lives as we knew them over the recent week and months. The majority of us, confined to our homes, had to adjust to the new social distancing rules, working from home for weeks, move all social interaction to the online world of Zoom, Skype, GoToMeeting and many more. And while we struggle in our own ways, it is crucial to remember that there are groups of people who are more affected by COVID-19 and the changes to brought to the world. This is not to suggest a completion over victimhood status but to recognize the particular situation, particular vulnerabilities that cannot be neglected when the impact of COVID-19 is assessed. And indeed, COVID-19 has had a proficient effect on the enjoyment of human rights, including the right to freedom of religion or belief, and human dignity. (more…)

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