According to the OECD a fragile region or state has a weak capacity to carry out basic governance functions such as education, health and safety for its citizens and businesses. They are vulnerable to internal and external shocks such as economic crises or natural disasters. It can cover countries with weak institutions, armed conflict, victims of natural disaster, hunger, and extreme poverty spread. These are countries where general informality is permanent.
Published in Chapter:
COVID-19 and Human Rights in a Fragile State: Guinea-Bissau
Carlos Sangreman (University of Lisbon, Portugal), Raquel Tavares Faria (University of Lisbon, Portugal), and Bubacar Turé (Human Guinean Rights Ligue, Portugal)
Copyright: © 2022
|Pages: 20
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-3369-0.ch018
Abstract
This investigation aims to study the situation of human rights during the COVID-19 pandemic in Guinea-Bissau between January 2020 and January 2022. The research organized an inquiry to families and another to market sellers about the effects of the pandemic and the measures enacted by the government and presidency to contain it. A public hearing was also organized, with various entities from the high commission to trade unions, journalists, and the public order police, for information on how each institution saw its situation and action in this period. The conclusions of the analysis of all these qualitative and quantitative data allow us to affirm that the fragility of Guinea-Bissau has such a social weight that a disease that killed fewer people than malaria, diarrhea, or tuberculosis did not overcome the problems of human rights stemming from poverty, institutional fragility, and low incomes in general.