Civic Space and Activists
We collaborate with local, regional, and international partners to hold governments accountable, create lasting legal change, and foster an environment allowing individual and collective actors to speak out, participate in public affairs, organize, protest, and otherwise freely exercise and enjoy their human rights. Through strategic litigation and targeted advocacy, we foster collaboration and dialogue between civil society and key actors and promote cross-pollination of the most protective legal standards and innovative approaches to legal issues. Our partnership model builds on the work of local organizations on the ground by jointly strategizing and litigating cases, supporting their litigation through filing Amicus briefs, and working together to assess, advise, and build their technical capacity. From litigating landmark cases, such as the first case on lethal violence against journalists before the Inter-American Court on Human Rights or a case on the protection for peaceful assembly before the African Commission of Human and Peoples’ Rights, to developing an innovative tool that maps key ongoing judicial cases worldwide, we are committed to protecting and defending civic space and democracy around the world.
114
Countries with serious civic space restrictions
88%
Rate of impunity for crimes of violence against journalists
44 of 180
U.S. ranking in World Press Freedom Index
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Television interview in the WTTG studios of the Metromedia Television Network
I think that we are also seeing a resurgence of extremism in the Northern communities. When we start to move in these areas, civil rights make some people uncomfortable, because things are not the same as they have always been.
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Address at Congressional Dinner at the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, California
There have always been extremists of both the left and the right in our country. There probably will always be. But if responsible and progressive elements can meet the needs of our people they will remain on the fringe.
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Speech at the Dedication of the John F. Kennedy Interfaith Chapel at West Georgia College in Carrollton, Georgia
What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.
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Television interview in the WTTG studios of the Metromedia Television Network
I believe that extremists of both the right and the left share certain characteristics. They are totally intolerant of the views of others and totally unwilling to engage in discussion. They don't have to because they have a simple answer for every problem.
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Speech Delivered Before the New York Democratic State Committee
The Democratic Party must make a major effort to involve itself with the social and economic problems of the States on the local as well as state-wide level.
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Address Delivered at the Testimonial Dinner for Lieutenant Governor Patrick J. Lucey of Wisconsin
And as long as America must choose, that long will there be a need and a place for the Democratic Party.
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Speech Delivered at the Democratic State Committee Dinner in Columbus, Ohio
In this entire century the Democratic party has never been invested with power on the basis of a program which promised to keep things as they were.
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Television interview in the WTTG studios of the Metromedia Television Network
I think that some of the demonstrations have weakened the position of those who advocate a particular cause.
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Address at the University of California, Berkeley Campus
It is not enough to allow dissent. We must demand it. For there is much to dissent from. We dissent from the fact that millions are trapped in poverty while the nation grows rich.
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Remarks Delivered at the University of Southern California Convocation
The right to criticize carries with it a responsibility— to study the facts, to be fully informed . . .
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Address Before the Jewish Theological Seminary of America at the Hotel Diplomat, Hollywood, Florida
It is important to remember that though we must tolerate dissent which is patently wrong, we must strive to make our own dissent and criticism responsible. The right to speak carries with it a duty to be informed; to be ourselves reasonable; to propose constructive alternatives. For only criticism which is responsible can lead to…
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Speech at the Dedication of Mt. Providence Junior College, Baltimore, Maryland
We are coming to understand that much of what is wrong with our education system is precisely that it is too much involved with government. Impersonal bureaucracies, however well-intentioned, operating from efficient remote headquarters, are no substitute for the intimate involvement of community—of home or church, of local voluntary association, and—in the last analysis—the active…
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