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Pandemic Undermines Human Rights Worldwide, UN Says

VOA News

   The head of the United Nations is urging the world to put human rights
   "front and center" in the coronavirus recovery efforts in order to
   achieve a better future for its citizens.

   In a televised address issued Thursday on the annual observance of
   International Human Rights Day, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said
   the COVID-19 pandemic has had a "disproportionate impact on vulnerable
   groups" including frontline workers, the elderly, disabled, women and
   girls, and minorities.

   The virus "has thrived because poverty, inequality, discrimination, the
   destruction of our natural environment and other human rights failures,
   have created enormous fragilities in our societies," Guterres said,
   while simultaneouslyproviding leaders with a pretext toimpose
   "heavy-handed security responses and repressive measures that curtail
   civic space and media freedom."

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