US Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the COVID-19 pandemic nears the ‘human rights’ crisis, The Associated Press reported.

During his video-statement, he noted that while providing public services to fight against COVID-19 there are ‘structural inequalities that impede access to them.’

According to him, during the pandemic, he has also seen “disproportionate effects on certain communities, the rise of hate speech, the targeting of vulnerable groups, and the risks of heavy-handed security responses undermining the health response.”

Guterres warned that with “rising ethno-nationalism, populism, authoritarianism and a pushback against human rights in some countries, the crisis can provide a pretext to adopt repressive measures for purposes unrelated to the pandemic.”

He stated that governments should be “transparent, responsive and accountable,” and highlighted the vital need for press freedom, civil society organizations, the private sector and “civic space.”