RightOn – Democracy in crisis?
In partnership with the Permanent Missions of Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands, UNFPA, the Geneva Academy, the Human Rights Centre of the University of Essex, World Jewish Conference, the Geneva Rights Platform, and the Geneva Internet Platform, the URG has launched a new digital initiative to keep the conversation on key human rights issues going during these times of lockdowns and self-isolation.
The RightOn initiative provides a platform for debate and exchange of ideas on topical human rights issues through regular webinars, which takes place every Wednesday at 3 PM CEST. The third of these Wednesday Web Chats took place on 22nd April 2020 and focussed on the issue of ‘Democracy in crisis?’
Already before the Covid-19 pandemic, many were talking about a crisis of liberal democracy. Fake news, the misuse of private data for political micro-campaigns, a lack a transparency in political fund-raising, and foreign interference in elections, including in some of the world’s oldest democracies, had undermined people’s faith in the democratic process. What is more, millions felt excluded from democratic decision-making and left behind by unequal socio-economic development.
Many of these trends have been exacerbated by the current crisis, which has also added new questions about the speed and robustness of political responses in the world’s democracies, and about the de facto suspension of democratic life and rule of law in the face of an unseen threat.
A recording of the discussion can be watched here:
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