Pandemic protests: Creatively using the freedom of assembly during COVID-19
| DOI | 10.1177/02656914211052942 |
| Published date | 01 December 2021 |
| Date | 01 December 2021 |
| Author | Antoine Buyse |
| Subject Matter | Column |
Pandemic protests: Creatively
using the freedom of assembly
during COVID-19
Antoine Buyse
Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
Abstract
It is a new truism that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated an already dire human rights
situation across the globe. The waves of protest that swept across the world in the year before
the pandemic seemed to have been brought to a sudden halt due to lockdowns and restrictive
laws. But at the same time, people everywhere have availed themselves of the wide protective
scope of the freedom of assembly, newly re-emphasized in the Human Rights Committee’s
General Comment of 2020, to come together, protest, and make their voices heard in numerous
creative ways. Amid the restrictions, there has been resilience.
Keywords
Freedom of assembly, online rights, creative protests, COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has made voicing one’s views and protesting together in public impossible
at times.
1
Beyond medical dangers and concerns, government-regulated lockdowns have been one of
the main causes for this. While empty squares in cities normally buzzing with commuters or tourists are
powerful images, they do not tell the whole story. Indeed, restrictions on a wide range of human rights,
including the freedom of assembly, have not led to total silence. Even if expressing dissent has become
much more difficult, people across the globe have managed to make their voices heard, alone or
together, offline and online, in many new and creative ways. In doing so, in an echo of human
Corresponding author:
Antoine Buyse, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
E-mail: A.C.Buyse@uu.nl
1. Thisis a slightly reworked version of a blog post that was published earlier as: Antoine Buyse, ‘Could We Meet Online?
Creative Protests During COVID-19’(GC Human Rights Preparedness, 1 April 2021). https://gchumanrights.org/
preparedness/article-on/could-we-meet-online-creative-protests-during-covid-19.html accessed 19 September 2021, and
has been republished with permission of that blog’s editors.
Column
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights
2021, Vol. 39(4) 265–267
© The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/02656914211052942
journals.sagepub.com/home/nqh
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