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Today, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law issued a new demand letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), calling for increased transparency and immediate action in response to COVID-19's disproportionate impact on Black communities and other communities of color. This letter follows the release of preliminary data by HHS. In the past week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released limited data for confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths. It has yet to provide any critical race and ethnicity data for COVID-19 tests. The release of this new data follows actions taken by the Lawyers' Committee on April 6th when, joined by close to 400 medical professionals, the organization called on HHS to release race/ethnicity data for COVID tests, cases and outcomes.
As of April 22, the CDC reports that there are 828,441 reported COVID-19 cases. However, the CDC only has demographic data (age, race or ethnicity) for 619,695 of these cases (74.4%). For this subset of cases with demographic data, the CDC has race data for only 35.9% of cases. For CDC cases with race data, 33.5% of patients are Black even though only 13% of the U.S. population is Black. Additionally, the race and ethnic demographic data provided by the CDC is not disaggregated by state, making it impossible to determine whether there are states with significant racial disparities in confirmed cases.
On April 21, the CDC reported limited race and ethnic demographic data for certain jurisdictions reporting more than 100 COVID-19 deaths further underscoring the racial disparities revealed in the data for confirmed cases. For example, in Louisiana Blacks account for 50.8% of COVID-19 deaths even though they represent 32.3% of the state's population. And in Michigan, Blacks account for 31% of COVID-19 deaths even though they represent 13.8 percent of the state's population.
"African American communities and families are being ravaged by COVID and the federal government's response has been woefully delayed and insufficient. Full and comprehensive racial data, including for tests is a critical weapon in the fight against this pandemic. It is indefensible at this critical stage that the federal government neither has complete racial data nor a plan for addressing the massive deficits," said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
Clarke continued: "Aggressive calls to reopen the economy pose a direct threat to Black lives, particularly in those communities where we are seeing African Americans disproportionately impacted. It would be reckless to reopen the economy without providing adequate protection for Black workers and other vulnerable communities that may be without equitable access to testing, care and treatment. States should not put profits over people and must take action that will help save lives."
In this new letter, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law demands that HHS:
To read the letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex M. Azar II, click here.
Earlier this week, the Lawyers' Committee held a press call to address the release of CDC and state data.
To receive a recording of the call or for more information, contact press@lawyerscommitee.org.
The Lawyers' Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to enlist the private bar's leadership and resources in combating racial discrimination and the resulting inequality of opportunity - work that continues to be vital today.
(202) 662-8600"Is this a bad joke?" asked one campaigner.
As Saudi Arabia prepares to host a global internet summit in December, 40 human rights groups on Friday urged authorities in the kingdom to release everyone imprisoned for online expression, including an activist serving a 27-year prison sentence for criticizing her country's severe repression of women.
The 40 groups said in a joint statement that "Saudi Arabia must free all individuals arbitrarily detained solely for their online expression ahead of hosting the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Riyadh, which will take place from December 15-19."
"It is counter to the IGF's stated values for Saudi Arabia to host the IGF," the organizations asserted. "In 2024 it adopted a thematic focus on advancing human rights and inclusion in the digital age and Saudi Arabia continues to prosecute, lock up, forcibly disappear, and intimidate people into silence for expressing themselves on social media."
As Amnesty International—which accused Saudi Arabia of "deep hypocrisy"—noted:
Saudi authorities have waged a chilling crackdown against people who demonstrate even the slightest sign of dissenting or critical views online. Among those who have been convicted for their online expression is Salma al-Shehab. She was arrested in January 2021 and, after a grossly unfair trial, sentenced in January 2023 to a shocking 27-year prison term followed by a 27-year travel ban on trumped-up terrorism charges, simply because she tweeted in support of women's rights.
In another deeply disturbing case, in January 2024, Saudi Arabia's terrorism court sentenced Manahel al-Otaibi to 11 years in prison in connection with social media posts promoting women's rights and sharing images of herself online at a mall without wearing an abaya (a traditional loose-fitting long-sleeved robe).
Those targeted also include Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, a Red Crescent worker, who in April 2020, after a grossly unfair trial, was sentenced to 20 years, to be followed by a 20-year travel ban, for his satirical tweets, and Mohammad bin Nasser al-Ghamdi, a retired school teacher, who was sentenced to death in July 2023 for criticizing authorities on X (formerly Twitter) and his online activity on YouTube.
"These cases are emblematic of the Saudi authorities' chilling crackdown on freedom of expression, but they are not isolated examples," the 40 groups said in their statement. "Dozens of people in Saudi Arabia, including visitors to the country, have been detained solely for their online expression."
"Consequently," the signers added, "many civil society organizations and advocates, who would ordinarily attend the IGF, have chosen not to travel to Saudi Arabia, fearing that they cannot safely and freely participate in the conference."
Representatives of some of the 40 groups that signed the statement weighed in on Saudi Arabia hosting the IGF.
"Is this a bad joke?" asked Freedom Forward executive director Sunjeev Bery. "There's a phrase for this: 'rights-washing.' Rights-washing is when a human rights violator tries to hide their crimes by wrapping themselves in human rights language and causes."
"Saudi Arabia's dictatorship is one of the most repressive governments on the planet," Bery added. "Saudi internet users who dare to speak their minds are often arrested, tortured, and jailed for years."
Amnesty International secretary general Agnès Callamard said that "Saudi Arabia's authorities have 100 days before the IGF begins to demonstrate that they will ease their draconian crackdown on freedom of expression, and to show that they will use this event as an opportunity to carry out genuine reforms rather than as part of an image-washing campaign."
"In order to prove that their hosting of the conference about the internet's future is more than just a cynical PR exercise, the Saudi authorities must release all those arbitrarily detained solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression online before the IGF begins," she added.
"People clearly understand that the most severe forms of environmental destruction harm all of us, and that there is real deterrent potential in creating personal criminal liability."
Nearly two-thirds of people living in the world's largest economies believe it should be "a criminal offense" for decision-makers in government or big businesses to knowingly cause serious harm to the climate, according to polling published Friday.
Conducted by Ipsos U.K. for Earth4All and the Global Commons Alliance (GCA), the Global Commons Survey focuses on residents of Austria, Denmark, Kenya, Sweden, and all countries that represent themselves at the G20 other than Russia.
Across the 22 countries, 72% of people agreed that "it should be a criminal offense for leaders of large businesses or senior government officials to approve or permit actions they know are likely to cause damage to nature and climate that is widespread, long-term, or cannot be reversed."
"The majority support (72%) for criminalizing actions which allow serious damage to the climate surprised us," said Earth4All co-lead Owen Gaffney in a statement. "The majority of people want to protect the global commons; 71% believe the world needs to take action immediately. Our survey demonstrates that people across the world's largest economies are acutely aware of the urgent need to safeguard our planet for future generations."
Keyna had the greatest share of people signaling support for ecocide legislation, at 91%, followed by Argentina, Mexico, and South Africa, all at 85%. The United States was 68%. The only country with less than a majority was Japan, at 43%.
"We're seeing significant policy shifts in favor of ecocide legislation at the domestic, regional, and international levels," said Jojo Mehta, co-founder and CEO of Stop Ecocide International. "Most notably, at the start of this year, the European Union included 'qualified offenses' in its newly revised Environmental Crime Directive that can encompass 'conduct comparable to ecocide.' This means E.U. member states now have two years to bring these rules into national law—a huge moment felt across the globe."
"We know this policy-level progress has been significantly driven by widespread civil society demand," she continued. "The new Global Commons Survey makes it obvious that there is already a strong foundation of public support for this law. People clearly understand that the most severe forms of environmental destruction harm all of us, and that there is real deterrent potential in creating personal criminal liability for top decision-makers. Damage prevention is always the best policy, which is precisely what ecocide law is about."
Other legal responses to the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency have included filing civil lawsuits against oil and gas giants for their decades of deception and exploring the possibility of bringing criminal charges against corporate polluters for deaths tied to extreme weather that's becoming more frequent and devastating.
In addition to the ecocide findings, the Global Commons Survey shows that 69% of all respondents believe Earth is close to climate and nature tipping points, 61% are advocating for strong action to protect the environment, 59% are very or extremely worried about the state of nature, and 52% feel very or somewhat exposed to climate and environmental risks.
The groups that commissioned the poll noted that "people in emerging economies such as India (87%), China (79%), Indonesia (79%), Kenya (73%), and Turkey (69%) feel more personally exposed to climate change compared to those in Europe and the United States."
There were also gender disparities—women exhibited higher levels of concern and were less likely to think claims about environmental risks are exaggerated or believe technology can solve such problems without individuals making big lifestyle changes.
"People everywhere are very worried about the state of our planet and they're feeling the pain already," said GCA executive director Jane Madgwick. "Awareness that we are close to tipping points is high, as is concern that political priorities lie elsewhere."
"It all comes down to what we can do collectively to safeguard and restore the global commons which sustain all life on Earth and protect us from the most severe impacts of climate change," she added. "This is going to take bold leadership and a truly global effort, connecting actions across nations and from the ground up."
"The nutrition situation in Gaza is one of the most severe that we have ever seen," a UNICEF official said.
Israel's war on Gaza has helped drive a more than twofold increase in the number of people facing catastrophic hunger in 2024 compared to last year, according to a report released by United Nations agencies and partner humanitarian groups on Thursday.
The report, a mid-year update of the Global Report on Food Crises, says that Gazans face "the most severe food crisis in the history" of the GRFC, which was first published in 2017.
The global number of people facing Phase 5—"Famine/Catastrophe," the highest level—in the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system went from 705,000 in 2023 to about 1.9 million this year, including projections through September.
About 1.1 million people in Gaza faced famine in March and April, while roughly 750,000 more recently did so in Sudan, which is locked in a gruesome civil war. South Sudan and Mali also had smaller areas of people facing food insecurity catastrophe.
Despite the figures, the U.N. hasn't formally declared a famine in Gaza, though many U.N. officials and experts have characterized the situation as such.
Though the Gaza famine numbers peaked in April, the situation remains extremely dire, according to Víctor Aguayo, UNICEF's director of child nutrition, who visited the besieged enclave last week.
"I walked through markets and neighborhoods—or what is left of them," Aguayo told reporters on Thursday. "I listened to the struggles of mothers and fathers to feed their children. And there is no doubt in my mind that the risk of famine and a large-scale severe nutrition crisis in Gaza is real."
Aguayo called for a cease-fire and humanitarian intervention, saying that "it's important to remember that the nearly half of Gaza's population suffering from this devastation are children."
"The nutrition situation in Gaza is one of the most severe that we have ever seen," he added.
Israeli forces have killed more than 41,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in the last 11 months, displacing nearly the entire population of 2.2 million, often multiple times, and destroying much of the enclave's infrastructure. They've also restricted emergency aid into Gaza, according to a large number of reports.
Rights groups have argued that Israel has used starvation as a weapon of war—a war crime. U.N. experts have called it an "intentional and targeted starvation campaign."
Hamas and allied militant groups massacred more than 1,100 Israelis on October 7 and took roughly 250 hostages, dozens of whom are still being held. Israel's declared war aim is eradicating Hamas and returning the hostages. The effort has received widespread international condemnation, both from rights groups and multilateral institutions, including the International Court of Justice, which in January ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide, and the International Criminal Court, which in May sought warrants for the arrest of Israeli and Hamas leaders.
The United States has been Israel's chief diplomatic ally and weapons supplier throughout the 11-month assault, with the Biden administration approving another $20 billion in arms transfers last month.
Thursday's GRFC update shows that Sudan, like Gaza, faces a large-scale humanitarian crisis. As of August, 8.5 million Sudanese faced Phase 4—"Emergency"—conditions of food insecurity, far more than any other country in the world. Famine has been declared in a refugee camp near El Fasher in Darfur and is expected to last through October, the report says.
The two main warring parties are the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), the state's official military, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group. The conflict began in April 2023 and has displaced more than 10 million people, just counting those who've stayed in the country.
As in Gaza, experts have accused armed forces of restricting aid and using starvation as a weapon of war.
Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, responded to the GRFC update by declaring that the hunger crises in both Gaza and Sudan were by design.
"That's because of the starvation strategy of the Israeli government and Sudanese forces," he wrote on social media.
The IPC classification system requires that an area meet three criteria to reach the Phase 5 "Famine" stage: 20% of households must face extreme lack of food, 30% of children must suffer from acute malnutrition, and two adults or four children out of 10,000 people must die each day due to starvation-related causes.
Recent formal declarations of famine by the United Nations have occurred in an area of South Sudan in 2017 and two regions of Somalia in 2011.