Civil Society

The world needs a collective effort to gather and share data to steer society and nations back to full operations, and to provide early indicators and warnings of future pandemics. Current methods for accessing data owned by public and private institutions and private citizens today are not able to guide COVID-19 recovery. The new data access frameworks in this initiative can succeed while strengthening societal welfare, prosperity, and peace around the world.

As Costa Rica becomes the first in Central America to take this step toward equality, it remains to be seen who will be next to turn the Inter-American Court on Human Rights’ opinion into action.

Since COVID-19 hit the country in early March, the government has begun to hound journalists and social activists, arresting and throwing them into jail for criticizing the lack of preparedness and theft of relief materials by ruling party leaders allocated for the most vulnerable segments of society. By late March dozens of people, including journalists, academics, opposition activists, a doctor, and students, were arrested by the government for posting content on social media critical of the government.