A call for global COVID parliamentary activism

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Commentary

A call for global COVID parliamentary activism

Parliaments and parliamentarians can monitor and manage global state efforts through sharing lessons of effective national legislative action and support each other as they develop new working practices to support citizens.

Every country is facing the stark realisation that together we are only as strong as our weakest link. On an international scale, development practitioners have pointed this out for decades, using the argument to compel richer countries to invest some of their wealth in assisting and fortifying emerging democracies across the world.  

But never before has the link between richer and poorer countries been as clinically clear as it is now. Third, fourth or fifth waves of the Covid-19 virus threaten richer countries if poorer nations are not supported in tackling and managing the pandemic, at least until a vaccine provides a more permanent break.

A quick tour of this weak link reveals the extent of the challenge to global democracy, beginning with the fact that the true extent of the infection is unknown. Across many parts of the global south a new architecture of oppression is emerging, as the virus lends legitimacy to authoritarians and provides the pretext for stifling protest and consolidating power.

Cambodia’s Prime Minister was granted sweeping powers to sentence dissenters to 10 years in jail. In the Philippines, where the President has issued security forces with shoot-to-kill orders when faced with unruly citizens, state enforcers locked two children into a coffin and five teenagers into a dog cage for violating the curfew. And 26,000 people have already been arrested for violating COVID-19-related regulations.

Civil liberties have been forfeited in the name of the public good. China is showing how this can be done through invasive surveillance, data harvesting, checkpoints, drones, censorship, and mass isolation. 

In other parts of the world this is achieved through heavy-handed policing, tear gas, truncheons, threats, beatings and humiliation. Doctors in Pakistan have been hit with batons for raising concerns about treating patients without basic personal protection equipment.

Vast inequality and poor public healthcare across Latin America make it ill equipped to cope. Parts of Ecuador are so overwhelmed by the virus that bodies lie in private houses for days, are placed in the street, or simply abandoned. Venezuela has 27 million people but only 87 beds equipped with respirators, and most hospitals do not have running water.

A similar picture is painted across Asia and Africa where attempts at national lockdowns have left already impoverished people hungry, increasingly desperate and dependent on handouts.

A food stampede broke out in Kenya over Easter, and while the Bangladeshi government declared a 10-day national holiday to combat the spread of COVID-19, in a country of 118 million people, social distancing and self-isolation are luxuries for the rich. Lockdowns are the worst of both worlds for the poorest as they deprive people of their livelihoods and social distancing is impossible

South Africa’s approach to handling the crisis stands out as a struggling democracy with extreme inequality, poverty and poor sanitation that has tried to follow international best practice. However, international best practice is relative. One of the arguments of rich countries is that lockdowns are necessary to preserve the health service but in many poorer countries there is no health service to overwhelm. Richer countries cannot afford to ignore the plight of the poor outside of their borders, just as they cannot ignore the most vulnerable within them. We are all tied to each other. The question is, what can we do about it?

Coordination in the global management of the crisis is key. The World Health Organisation is vital, but it cannot ensure that governments in each country pay attention to its advice and guidance. 

Parliaments and parliamentarians can monitor and manage global state efforts through sharing lessons of effective national legislative action. Parliaments and parliamentarians across the world can also support each other as they develop new working practices to support citizens.

At its core, this call for global-crisis parliamentary activism is an argument for the promotion of direct knowledge sharing between parliaments on the mechanisms they are trying and testing to support effective parliamentary business throughout the pandemic, so that parliaments innovate rapidly to stand firm in delivering their democratic obligations.

Yet it also represents a call to action. By ‘going global’ parliaments can pass declarations that support citizen rights, for example by ensuring the indiscriminate right to basic income and healthcare for millions of citizens displaced by the virus. Such joint declarations offer parliaments an immediate measure for holding governments collectively responsible for tackling cross-border civil right abuses.

‘Partner parliaments’ can be established to promote virtual communication between officials and MPs.  This type of inter-parliamentary activism should inspire officials with ways to manage parliamentary business and support MPs in anticipation of the additional requirements MPs have when overseeing the government, reviewing legislation and representing citizens during this period.  

WFD and other international actors like the Inter-parliamentary Union, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and Parlamericas play an important coordinating role in this effort, helping to bring parliaments together and synthesis lessons into guides, principles and other useful tools.