Prof. Ní Aoláin Featured in Esquire on the Potential for Authoritarians to Abuse Emergency Powers During and After the Global COVID-19 Pandemic

Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, faculty director of the Human Rights Center, was featured in an Esquire article discussing the heightened risk for abuse of emergency power by authoritarian states during and after the global COVID-19 pandemic. “Historically, when a nation augments its arsenal of emergency powers, it’s very hard to put them back in the box,” said Ní Aoláin. “So there is grave danger that this repurposing isn’t short-term, and that the costs are going to be extremely high on fundamental rights, like the freedom of movement, speech, assembly, participation in elections.”