Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Source: Getty Summary: In an extraordinary year, the coronavirus pandemic did not deter protesters around the worldâdespite restrictions on protest rights and the danger of gathering in groups. Related Media and Tools If you enjoyed reading this, subscribe for more! Thank you! Check your email for details on your request. The year 2020 highlighted the resilience of protests around the globe. Despite the greatest public health challenge in over a century—and the viral threat, lockdowns, and increasingly repressive environment it triggered—protests remained an integral part of the global political landscape. In early 2020, when little was known about the virus and it seemed like a localized problem, the protest surge that had marked the second half of 2019 continued. Huge demonstrations kept roiling politics in places as diverse as Chile, Hong Kong, and Lebanon, and new, shorter protests—like those over the downing of an airliner in Iran—erupted regularly.