Miscellaneous
Season 2, Episode 2 - COVID-19 & HRDs: Defending the Marginalized - China, Poland & Rohingya In Bangladesh - FLD Intro: 00:00 - 02:07 - Interview with Lu Pin, China: 02:07 - 16:03 - Interview with Karolina Wieckiewicz, Poland: 16:04 - 27:01 - Interview with Rohingya HRD, Bangladesh: 27:02 - 31:52 Across the world, human rights defenders are adapting to life under the COVID-19 pandemic and working to both continue their regular work and also to provide additional support to groups who were already vulnerable and marginalized. In this episode of the Front Line Defenders ‘Rights on the Line’ podcast, we continue to learn about the impact of the health crisis on the work of HRDs on the front lines. In China, even as the complete closure of Wuhan was still in full effect, human rights defenders and organizations reported spikes in the number of cases of domestic violence being called in to hotlines. What has now emerged as a consequence of the stay at home policy in numerous countries is that the virus has left women trapped with their abusers. We talk with feminist activist Lu Pin about what the experience in China has been and what can be expected. Another impact of COVID-19 is that with the overwhelming of health services to care for the sick, other medical procedures are delayed or inaccessible. For women seeking abortions who live in countries where such procedures are almost completely outlawed, traveling abroad is the only way to access their right to choose. Yet with travel restrictions and cutbacks in transportation services, these options are drastically reduced. Karolina Wieckiewicz from Poland joins us to talk about the situation there. Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are living in deplorable conditions, where risks of waterborne and other infectious diseases are exceptionally high due to their unhygienic living conditions. There have been diptheria outbreaks and respiratory and skin diseases are common. We talk with a Rohingya refugee in a camp in Cox’s Bazaar to understand what is happening now that the COVID-19 virus is present in the country. For more information about HRDs and the COVID-19 crisis, visit Front Line Defenders website – www.frontlinedefenders.org/COVID19 . This podcast is available on Soundcloud, Stitcher, Apple podcasts and other podcasting platforms. More episodes assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will be released in the coming days and weeks, as we offer this podcast as solidarity to human rights defenders and their struggles for justice. Music Notes: 1. "Freedom" by Yung Kartz (yungkartzbeats.com/) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. 2. "She Is For Me China" by Sobrio (soundcloud.com/sobrio) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. 3. "Lynx - Picture (The Polish Ambassador Remix)" by The Polish Ambassador (https://thepolishambassador.com/) is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. 4. "wasteland" by Silicon Transmitter (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Silicon_Transmitter)is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.