S1 Ep18: States of Control: The Dark Side of Pandemic Politics

This episode examines authoritarian and repressive state responses to the Coronavirus pandemic, featuring the UN Special Rapporteur on Protecting Human Rights and other global experts and activists.

In response to an unprecedented global health emergency, many states are rolling out measures from deploying armies and drones to control public space, to expanding digital control through facial recognition technology and tracker apps. What if these measures become permanent once the pandemic has subsided? What if health is repurposed as a national security issue? How do we ensure that COVID-19 doesn’t become the new 9/11 – a new milestone in authoritarian states of control?

This episode  explores the political dimension of state responses, particularly the securitisation of COVID-19 through the expansion of powers for military, police, and security forces. Panellists explore how we can prevent these practices from being normalised and how to use our collective experiences of solidarity to construct a more just, democratic, and rights-centered world.

Panellists-

Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, UN Special Rapporteur on the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights while Countering Terrorism, University of Minnesota

Arun Kundnani, New York University, author of The Muslims are Coming! Islamophobia, extremism, and the domestic War on Terror and The End of Tolerance: racism in 21st century Britain

María Paz Canales, Derechos Digitales (Digital Rights campaign), Chile

Anuradha Chenoy, School of International Studies in Jawaharlal Nehru University, and author of 'Militarisation and Women in South Asia'