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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RFK Human Rights Submits Communication to UN Human Rights Committee for Ugandan Novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija
Tags Share Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights has submitted a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee for the case of exiled Ugandan award-winning novelist, Kakwenza Rukirabashaija. Rukirabashaija is a renowned novelist who was thrice arbitrarily arrested, detained, and tortured by Ugandan state security forces for his writings criticizing President Yoweri Museveni, his son, and
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Chadian Authorities must desist from attacking human rights defenders and critical voices
Tags Share Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and the International Service for Human Rights strongly condemn the attacks on pro-democracy protesters by Chadian security forces resulting in the death of over 50 people and injuring hundreds. We urge the transitional authorities to take all necessary measures to ensure the respect for human rights in Chad
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Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights hosts panel on the future of Strategic Litigation for the protection of Digital Rights
Tags Share On the sidelines of the 2022 Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights played host to an experts’ panel on the future of strategic litigation for the protection of digital rights. The panel was organized in collaboration with Unwanted Witness Uganda and the International Justice Clinic at the University
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Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights demands immediate release of Somali journalist and human rights defender Abdalle Ahmed Mumin
Tags Share Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights strongly condemns the arbitrary arrest and detention of Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, Somali journalist, human rights activist, and Secretary General of the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) and urges Somali authorities to immediately release him and end all harassment, intimidation, threats, and violence against journalists and civil society activists in
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Access to Information Day: A gift from Africa to the world
Tags Share Today, September 28, we celebrate the International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI) thanks to the commitment, determination and persistence of African civil society organizations. This year’s International Day focuses on the challenges and opportunities of accessing information in a digital world. Tomorrow, we will be hosting the panel “Protection of Digital
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At STTP event, genocide survivor Suljagić says the world must prevent a repeat of Srebrenica in Ukraine
Tags Share Emir Suljagić was 17 years old when the Bosnian war erupted on April 6, 1992. The director of the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial Center shared his experiences on Tuesday Sept. 20 at the Speak Truth to Power Speaker’s Series, a live virtual event organized by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and moderated by George
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Workshop with Foro Penal on the Istanbul Protocol
Tags Share For several years RFK Human Rights has been working on the documentation and investigation of the use of torture and enforced disappearance in Venezuela as a tool of political repression. Additionally, it has worked closely with local partners representing cases of serious human rights violations and advocating on behalf of victims. On September
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Taller con Foro Penal sobre el Protocolo de Estambul
Tags Share Por varios años RFK Human Rights ha venido trabajando en la documentación e investigación del uso de la tortura y la desaparición forzada en Venezuela como herramienta de la persecución política. Adicionalmente, también ha trabajado con aliados en el terreno en la representación e incidencia en casos de graves violaciones a los derechos
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Modern Decolonization: The Role of the UN and the Responsibility of All of Us
Tags Share In December 1960, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution, Resolution 1514 XV, better known as the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. Resolution 1514 proclaims “the necessity of bringing to a speedy and unconditional end colonialism in all its forms and manifestations” and asserts that
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RFKHR’s Roby, Foro Penal President Romero take on enforced disappearances in Venezuela during live event
Tags Share Venezuela is a country that faces ongoing political repression, restrictions on civic space, widespread human rights violations, and the region’s most significant ongoing humanitarian crisis, which has caused over six million Venezuelans to flee abroad by June 2022, according to the United Nations. That’s why Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights has partnered with
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5 Things to Know About Western Sahara
Tags Share Western Sahara hosts the second largest wall in the world, coming up short only to the Great Wall of China. This wall, known as the Berm, is 1600 miles long, 10 feet tall, and made of sand. The Berm runs all the way from Western Sahara’s southern border with Mauritania, to its northern
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Two Years of Arbitrary Detention of Hotel Rwanda Hero Paul Rusesabagina
Tags Share Two years ago on Aug. 27, Belgian citizen and U.S. permanent resident Paul Rusesabagina was tricked by a friend to leave the country for a speaking engagement in Burundi, but instead transferred against his will to Kigali during his layover in Dubai. Deceived into thinking he was connecting to Burundi, he was abducted
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