“The pandemic and some of the measures taken to tackle it had a devastating effect on the lives of millions, but also revealed, and sometimes aggravated, existing patterns of abuses and inequalities,” said the international human rights group after publishing their annual report on the state of Human rights around the world.Â
In 42 out of the 149 nations surveyed, the group found essential workers were intimidated or harassed by governments to continue working, despites shortages of protective equipment even as 1.8 million people died around the world.
Other relief measures had discriminatory impacts on marginalized groups, the group said, especially on women who make up 70% of health and social service workers worldwide.
“In many countries, ethnic minorities and Indigenous peoples had disproportionately high rates of infection and death, due in part to pre-existing inequalities and lack of access to healthcare,” Amnesty said. Â
 “Political and religious figures stigmatized marginalized groups, blaming them for spreading the virus. Muslims in some South Asian countries and LGBTI people in several African and European ones were among the targets.”
All in all the pandemic largely served to only enforce pre existing human rights issues around the world, such as inequality in Latin America, the use of state violence in Africa and clamp downs on freedom of speech in the Asia-pacific region, the group concluded.
