On May 21, 6am ET, WITNESS launched the UN-Gala COVID-19 Human Rights Stories along with Professor Angela Davis.
WITNESS is a non-profit organization that helps people use video and technology to protect human rights.
It was an hour-long virtual sharing of different human rights stories across the world amidst the pandemic.
Peter Gabriel, an activist and WITNESS founder, emphasized that the pandemic was not just a health crisis, but also a human rights crisis because the most vulnerable communities around the world suffer more now.
Palika Makam, a media activist, introduced the topic of viral literary work of Arundhati Roy, saying the pandemic is a portal towards a better world.
Prof. Angela Davis, an American political activist, philosopher, and member of Communist Party USA, shared the images of the demonstration that took place last Saturday outside of the wall of San Quentin Prison in the bay area Oakland, California, USA. Prisons, according to professor Davis are cauldrons for the virus.
“The organizers of the demonstrations wanted to draw attention to the facts that during this period which is era of Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) all over the world, there are vast number of people who are vulnerable to COVID-19,” said the professor.
Professor Davis said that while it is so self-evident, very few government officials have actually made a move to engage on this matter. She also said that we should abolish prisons and develop a more meaningful system of justice, especially in this pandemic.
“We will not be going backwards we will not be returning to normalcy as we experienced prior to the crisis. This crisis reveals the way in which global capitalism is associated with violence and repression,” insisted Prof. Davis.
Global solidarity
According to Prof. Davis, global solidarity is most important for this period and for the future as we are witnessing conditions that reveal the very notion of the independent state nation is no longer viable.
There are total of 272 million international immigrants across the world, according to the last year statistics of United Nations. The extent of immigrants all over the world are subject to the worst kind of political repression incarcerated to the prison industrial complex or PIC.
“Information travels, corporations travel, capitalism travels. Everything is flowing across the national boarders during this era of global capitalism but when people join this flow, they will consider illegal, and so we should begin to question the very notion of boarders and certainly this pandemic should further eliminate this condition of globalization,” the professor said.
Professor Davis stressed on special focus on solidarity because we can still communicate even when we can’t travel through the emergence of different technologies. We had always realized that global solidarities are essential.
Professor Davis also pointed out the special role of the activist in this pandemic to eliminate the one-bad-police-officer narrative and enlighten the people to examine the rotten system. She said that individual of course should be rendered accountable, but living under conditions of capitalism which highlight individual as the most important unit of society she thinks that we have learned that even we generate resistance against individual police officer and call for them to be render accountable within the framework of criminal justice, the structure racism and structural violence of police departments continue to exist. She said that it only means that we need to think about different modes of security and scrap the notion of relying on violent police to guarantee security.
Prof. Davis highlighted that during this very difficult period, we witness these signs of hope and we should keep this in our own insights and messages as we move to this online portal. We should strengthen our movements against misogyny and gender violence, strengthen our campaign against global PIC, racism and continue use of colonial strategy and we should always protect our indigenous people as they belong to the most vulnerable population during this COVID-19.
“It’s young people who are moving us in the direction of future. It’s young activist who will come up with new and creative ideas and they are excited for the future,” Professor Davis ended.
There are 341, 810 people who have died from COVID-19 as of May 23, 2020 and more than 5 million COVID-19 cases have been reported around the world.
Gabriel shared a tribute for frontliners and those who died in this pandemic.
Who will wear the crown?
The alien conqueror are coming to town
Nobody knows who’ll be wearing his crown ‘till we count out the numbers and know just who’s down
And the alien conqueror are coming to town
A moment’s been caught and a boat goes adrift
Its duty and love and life their last gift.
And we cheer for this frontline as they head for their shift
We’re alone, we’re together and there’s the lift
And friends they’re drowning as boats come apart
So many cut short, so much hurt in the heart
We all come to naught when we share out this crown
And the kings and the queens of each family fall down
Stars up above us on this empty London street
The world is turning once again and when the wheel will stop
The world will formed as something else and then the coin will drop
And out come all the questions the questions we don’t asks
As we close from a distance and stay protected with a masks
For all of you who’ve fallen, no more is it your task
We’ll make sure the light’s infectious, that’s still glowing in your cask.
