Discrimination and Disparity in the Covid-19 Pandemic
Covering the nearly two-year span of the COVID–19 pandemic to date, this roundup is a collection of reporting and research on communities around the world that have experienced the dual perils of discrimination and disparity. In addition to bearing the brunt of the disease, marginalized communities around the world have become the pandemic’s scapegoats and the targets of rumor, distrust, and disinformation campaigns, resulting in the “racialization” of the virus and creating further insecurities during the crisis. Beyond local inequalities, the coupling of discrimination and disparity has generated transnational inequities such as the outbreak of anti-Asian racism, the targeting and marginalization of migrants and refugees, and the disproportionately worse illness outcomes of Indigenous and Black people.
The situation has created obstacles to protecting communities against the ongoing effects of COVID–19. Among historically persecuted communities, longstanding distrust of government brought about by historical injustices has cultivated resistance to state-driven medical interventions such as vaccine campaigns. And local inequalities have been exacerbated by structural inequalities at the international level, with the wealthy West accused of hoarding health resources such as vaccines.
This collection contains more than 160 news reports, research articles, and data sources covering conditions and developments at the global, regional, and national levels. Data and information in older items are likely outdated and should be treated as historical records, reflecting emergent problems and understandings that have produced the current social, political, and economic landscape of the pandemic. However, the unfolding of coverage reveals how knowledge of the differential impact of the pandemic has shifted, from early awareness of racial and ethnic mortality disparities and reports of discrimination to recent concerns about vaccine nationalism and the long-term economic impacts of the pandemic.
New database catalogs human rights violations for the Caribbean’s vulnerable communities
The Shared Incidents Database (SID) will document violations affecting people with HIV, sex workers, people with substance addiction, gay and bisexual men, trans people, vulnerable youth, migrants, and the incarcerated.
The database is a collaboration between the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC) and the Centro de Orientación e Investigación Integral (COIN), based in the Dominican Republic.
Human rights and social justice organizations across the Caribbean are being trained in the use of SID, which creators envision as a tool in program development, policy creation, petitioning, and reporting.
With estimates of their numbers as high as 10,000, Cuban Muslims have grown from a tiny group of followers to a vibrant cultural community, particularly in Havana. An atheist state under communism, Cuba has begun to relax prohibitions on religion over the years, providing a small space for Muslims amidst the country’s predominantly Catholic population. Cuba itself experiences little immigration, but a growing number of converts have expanded the presence of Islam in the Caribbean nation.
As funding from Turkey supports the construction of a mosque in Old Havana and Saudi Arabia sends religious garments, observant Muslims, increasingly visible, are now faced with educating their broader communities about a religion few have had much interaction with outside of negative television reports. For Ramadan, several media outlets have taken a look at the community of Cuban Muslims looking to practice a faith of restraint some Cubans see as foreign to their culture.
The International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia & Biphobia
Commemorating the day when homosexuality was de-pathologized by the World Health Organization in 1990, the 13th-annual International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia & Biphobia (IDAHOT) stands as an occasion for global mobilization towards LGBT visibility and security. The day, like many global celebrations, is also one many governments choose to speak out on global human rights and minority security, announcing initiatives to support their LGBT citizens and international projects.
Even today, ongoing disagreements between nations over LGBT rights have prompted diplomatic rows and roadblocks to international cooperation, including the recent objection of 51 Muslim countries to the participation of LGBT groups in a U.N. AIDS forum in June. The push to extinguish homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia at all geographic levels remains important to the global mobility of LGBT people worldwide.
LGBT Nigerians have continued wrestling with conflicting legal messages, with the recent passage of the landmark HIV Anti-Discrimination Act doing little to undo the effects of a 2014 anti-homosexuality law.
The Gay and Lesbians Association of Zimbabwe (GALZ) organized events for IDAHOT in Bulawayo, focusing on mental health as ongoing social and healthcare difficulties plague the community.
Though homosexuality remains criminalized in Tunisia, activists have achieved increased visibility and pushed for legal reform amidst ongoing discrimination.
Israel reaffirmed its commitment to LGBT Israelis, announcing funding to support an emergency shelter for LGBT youth and a hostel for trans people who have recently undergone gender confirmation surgery.
Days before IDAHOT, activists staged a sit-in outside of a Beirut gendarmerie, protesting Lebanon‘s anti-homosexuality legal holdovers from French occupation. Similarly, the Lebanese Medical Association for Sexual Health (LebMASH) issued an appeal to the Lebanese government to decriminalize same-sex relations, arguing for recognition of homosexuality’s presence within the natural variation of human sexuality.
U.S. President Barack Obama released a statement of support as his administration lended its voice to a national debate over the bathroom rights of trans people.
Across Latin America, important gains in same-sex partnership and family rights and gender identity healthcare and legal protections have heartened LGBT Latin Americans, but the region continues to have some of the highest reported rates of violence against the LGBT community in the world.
LGBT organizations held cultural and political events throughout Argentina to highlight conditions facing the Argentine LGBT community, call for an anti-discrimination law, and press for federal recognition of the International Day Against Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Discrimination, as the day is known.
Cuba celebrated the day fresh off Pride events in Havana, where Mariela Castro, daughter of President Raúl Castro, led a parade of thousands through the city streets.
As the country continues contentious battles including the push for marriage equality and erasure of “gay panic” legal defenses, rainbow flags and celebrations appeared across Australia, including over police stations in Canberra, in the streets of Brisbane, and in the senior-care facilities of Tasmania. In Victoria, officials announced a retreat for Aboriginal gender minorities to be held later in the year.
In China, a study conducted by the U.N. Development Programme, Peking University, and the Beijing LGBT Center, the largest of its kind to date, was released revealing that only 5% of LGBTI Chinese are fully out at school and work, but also showed encouraging levels of acceptance of LGBTI people among China’s youth. The head of Hong Kong’s Equal Opportunities Commission expressed support for anti-discrimination legislation at IDAHOT festivities in the city.
In Fiji, former President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau joined festivities at the French Ambassador’s residence to celebrate the island’s LGBTQI community.
A tug-of-war over LGBT rights between Islamic fundamentalists and pro-diversity moderates in Indonesia has led to mixed messages about LGBT security in the nation, spurring anti-discrimination protests.
A recent Human Rights Watch report on anti-LGBT bullying in Japan served as a reminder of the purpose of the day, highlighting rampant anti-LGBT sentiment even as the government has initiated broad efforts to combat bullying in schools.
The divergent prospects for LGBTI people across Europe, from Western Europe’s distinctive commitment to the protection of gender diversity to ongoing persecution in the East, was further confirmed through a UNESCO report highlighting anti-LGBT violence in schools released as global education ministers met in Paris.
Rainbow colors appeared in the shopping district of Cyprus‘s capital as 22 organizations came together to organize events to launch the country’s third Pride Festival, focusing on the need to increase legal recognition of both sexual and gender minorities in the country.
In Gibraltar, organizers canceled event plans in support of action on marriage equality legislation currently under consideration, arguing that holding a rally in front of the Parliament as uncertainty prevails would undermine pressure on MPs.
Kosovo‘s first Pride march brought out hundreds from the LGBT community to Pristina, including the U.S. and U.K. ambassadors.
Organizations in Luxembourg planned a silent march to call attention to the plight of LGBTI individuals worldwide and call for increased international protections (including asylum).
Organizers in Serbia took the day to announce the date of this year’s Pride parade (September 18) and address concerns of homophobia as right-wing parliamentary representation has increased.
Advocates, allies, and diplomats gathered around the rainbow flag raised at the US Embassy in Latvia.
After advocates scrapped plans for IDAHOT activities in Georgia due to security concerns, a group of activists were arrested for painting pro-LGBT graffiti on administrative buildings. A “Family Day” protest against LGBT rights and visibility, the third such anti-LGBT demonstration, brought together members of Georgia’s conservative Orthodox community and international religious groups.
In the U.K., London’s new mayor promised to make the city a more just place for its LGBT residents as a rainbow flag flew over the Mayor’s Office.
Bermuda prepares for referendum on same-sex civil unions and marriage
Set for June 23, the referendum will ask respondents two questions: whether they support same-sex marriage and whether they support same-sex civil unions.
“Yes” campaigners include a constellation of pro-LGBT groups include Rainbow Alliance, Marriage Equality Bermuda, Same Love Bermuda, and OUTBermuda.
The referendum follows a November 2015 Supreme Court ruling granting same-sex partners of Bermudians residency and employment rights in the country.
Surge in Cuban emigration spurs resentment in U.S. and bottleneck throughout Central America
Taking advantage of Cuba’s 2012 removal of exit visas, more than 43,500 Cubans arrived in 2015, a 78% increase over 2014 and nearly six times as many as in 2011.
Following an airlift of Cuban migrants traveling to the U.S. through Central America stuck at a closed Nicaraguan border, Costa Rica closed its borders to Cuban migrants, trapping thousands across its border with Panama in towns like Paso Canoas and Puerto Obaldia.
With the reestablishment of U.S.-Cuba diplomatic relations, some have begun calling for a revision of the immigration policy that fast-tracks permanent residency for Cuban immigrants over others, including those from violence-riddled Central America.
Protesters arrested as Cuban government “cleans house” ahead of Obama’s historic visit
Dozens of members of the dissident group Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) were arrested in the hours before President Barack Obama’s historic visit to the Caribbean nation, protesting the lack of democratic reform as Castro’s Cuba reconnects with the U.S.
Although the group holds weekly protests, this week’s drew a large pro-government counter-demonstration as foreign media descended on Havana ahead of Obama’s visit.
Obama is expected to meet with dissident leaders during his visit and raise human rights issues, including free expression, during his meeting with President Raúl Castro.
“Everyone wants to know how we Cubans feel about Obama coming. … I’m frankly just happy that giant pothole finally got filled in, so if I have him to thank for it, thanks Obama!”
As Cuba’s economy continues to experience a significant boost from normalized relations with the U.S., many black Cubans and women have yet to see the benefits. Structural inequality and ongoing discrimination have shuttled the disadvantaged into an underclass of limited opportunity despite persistent and high-profile government attempts to eradicate the problem. While a significant number of white Cubans were able to flee abroad to the U.S. and send remittances back to their families, many Afro-Cubans were tied to what opportunity they could get in low-paying government jobs. Women have found themselves disproportionately shouldering domestic tasks, disappearing jobs, and lack of social capital relative to men. Boston Review, The Root, and the Thomson Reuters Foundation examine how political, social, and economic developments have re-marginalized Cuba’s black minority and women over the last two decades.
“Prejudice never disappeared. It was simply concealed under the table. And silence allowed all the problems to grow, under the table.”
US-based Jamaican writer wins Britain’s top literary prize
Novelist Marlon James has become the first Jamaican writer to win Britain’s prestigious Man Booker Prize.
He captured the award with his work A Brief History of Seven Killings, an epic crime novel weaving together multiple stories around the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in 1976.
James’s first novel, John Crow’s Devil, was published in 2005; he currently lives in Minneapolis and teaches at Macalester College.
Jamaica-based disability foundation to focus on education in annual conference
The Nathan Ebanks Foundation was founded by Christine Staple-Ebanks as a disability support organization after Staple-Ebanks found local resources lacking after her child was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
Poor visibility of disability issues in the country have made public advocacy and resource-building difficult, a problem which the foundation tackles through its annual conferences.
Scheduled for October 28-31 in Montego Bay, this year’s conference will focus on inclusive education both to inform Jamaicans with disabilities of their rights and to combat lack of awareness about disability issues in Jamaica.
“What floored me was not the diagnosis, it was what to do. All the different specialists that we went to were only telling me what my child would never ever do but no one could tell me what my role was as a mother or how I could better support my child.”
Saint Lucia prepares to launch new economic citizenship program
Saint Lucia’s Citizenship by Investment Programme is an economic initiative that will allow foreign investors to purchase Saint Lucian citizenship through direct investment in the country.
Set to launch January 1, 2016, Saint Lucian officials anticipate investment in sectors like tourism in exchange for citizenship in the Eastern Caribbean nation.
The country will be the fifth Caribbean nation to implement such a program, following Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, and Dominica.
Jamaican leaders find no traction on reparations issue with U.K. PM
British PM David Cameron rejected calls from Jamaican PM Portia Simpson Miller and other Caribbean leaders for reparations and an unconditional apology during his recent visit to Jamaica, the first by a British PM in 14 years.
Caribbean leaders have chronicled the long-term economic damages that the lack of reparations following Britain’s 1833 emancipation of the enslaved has inflicted on their national economies.
The call for reparations in the Caribbean has been particularly strong in the region because of the significant financial compensation offered to slave owners at the time of emancipation.
Summer 2015 saw a flurry of activities as Afro-Latina advocates and organizations united in forums and campaigns addressing the racial, ethnic, and gender discrimination experienced by women of African descent throughout Latin America. Events including the Afro-descendant Women Leaders of America Summit and advocates including bloggers, Descato Feminista (Feminist Contempt), Teatro en Sepia (Theater in Sepia), and the Red de Mujeres Afro-Latinoamericanas Afro-Caribeña y de la Diáspora (Network of Afro-Latin American and Afro-Caribbean Women of the Diaspora) focused on issues including gender-based violence, domestic labor, and political representation. Global Voices explores the busy summer for Afro-Latina advocacy.
ClimateWatchperiodically analyzes the security climates of the world’s regions, focusing on conditions and developments affecting the most vulnerable identity communities while highlighting meaningful political and social steps towards security and integration. This week’s Latin American & Caribbean report summarizes developments in identity security from late July through mid-August.
Held in Kingston, the week-long celebration includes a flashmob, art exhibit and performances, and a dance party in the Jamaican capital.
The festival received the support of Kingston’s mayor and Jamaica’s minister of justice despite the continued presence of anti-sodomy laws on the books.
Jamaica Pride is a major step forward for a country widely known for its pervasive homophobia, including violence against gays and lesbians and abject homelessness among out gay youth.
“I think we will look back on this and see it as a turning point because many persons thought that it would never actually happen.”
Outlas 