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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Kerry Kennedy and Kateryna Yushchenko: An appeal to Ukrainian Americans: Speak truth to power
Tags Share For many Americans, the situation in Ukraine may seem as distant as memories of the fall of the Berlin Wall. But the threat of a Cold War knocks at our doors once again, bringing reminders of our childhoods in the 1960s, when schools across the country practiced duck and cover drills and families
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With “a different kind of warfare” on the rise, young people can prepare by embracing technology and education
Tags Share Kateryna Yushchenko, former first lady of Ukraine, urged young people to speak truth to power in the face of injustice and create a world where they can’t be influenced by disinformation. “Speak out to your elected representatives. Speak out to the media when you see something that’s very unfair,” she said on February
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Briefing Paper on Recent Human Rights Developments in Egypt: Signs for Optimism or Another Trick from the Authoritarian Playbook?
Tags Share Egypt recently launched numerous human rights-related measures, including its first National Strategy for Human Rights. Yet, a mere three months after the Strategy was released, the Egyptian State Security Emergency Misdemeanor court sentenced human rights activist Alaa Abd El Fattah, human rights lawyer Mohamed el-Baqer, and blogger Mohamed Ibrahim on politically-motivated charges of
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United Nations inquiry finds that Egyptian authorities arbitrarily detained Ahmed Samir Santawy
Tags Share The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights welcome the favorable opinion by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention finding the Egyptian government arbitrarily detained our client Ahmed Samir Santawy in violation of international human rights law. The Working Group held that the government arbitrarily
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International Organizations Reject the Criminalization of Judge Pablo Xitumul and Denounce the Persecution of Justice Operators in Guatemala
Tags Share Guatemala City, Geneva and Washington D.C. February 10, 2022 On February 9, 2022, the Supreme Court of Justice declared admissible the request to strip Judge Pablo Xitumul de Paz of his judicial immunity, leaving him vulnerable to impeachment. Pablo Xitumul de Paz is the judge of the First Court of Criminal Sentencing, Drug
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Organizaciones Internacionales Rechazamos Criminalización del Juez Pablo Xitumul y Denunciamos la Persecución de Operadores de Justicia en Guatemala
Tags Share Ciudad de Guatemala, Ginebra y Washington D.C 10 de febrero de 2022 Ayer, 09 de febrero, la Corte Suprema de Justicia decidió declarar con lugar la solicitud de antejuicio interpuesta contra el juez Pablo Xitumul de Paz, juez del tribunal primero de sentencia penal, narcoactividad y de delitos contra el ambiente, con competencia
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Bangladesh: Stop Reprisals Against Human Rights Defenders and Their Families
Tags Share The Government of Bangladesh must stop reprisals against human rights defenders and their families in its campaign to exculpate perpetrators of human rights abuses, and must ensure they can work in a safe and enabling environment. Coercion, intimidation, and harassment committed by members of the state security and intelligence agencies on those working
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The New York Times’ reporting on civic space in Cuba comes at a key time
Tags Share In Mass Trials in Cuba Deepen its Harshest Crackdown in Decades (Americas, Jan. 14), the Times details a disturbing new twist to the Cuban government’s continued crackdown on civic space. This reporting comes at a key time. As scores of citizens are placed on trial for taking part in summer demonstrations, the continued
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La Sociedad Civil Venezolana Se Adjunta Antes del EPU
Tags Share Lea este artículo en inglés. El 21 de enero de 2022, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, en colaboración con la Comisión Internacional de Juristas (CIJ) y Fair Trials, organizó un panel de discusión virtual sobre los fallos del sistema de justicia de Venezuela, en preparación para el Examen Periódico Universal que se llevó
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Venezuelan Civil Society Comes Together Ahead of UPR
Tags Share Read this article in Spanish. On January 21, 2022, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, in collaboration with the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and Fair Trials, hosted a virtual panel discussion on the failures of the Venezuelan justice system, ahead of Venezuela’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) which took place on January 25. The
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Bangladesh: Rights groups call for release of Nusrat Shahrin Raka, sister of Bangladeshi journalist Kanak Sarwar
Tags Share January 27, 2022 Mr. Abu Mohammad Amin Uddin Attorney General of Bangladesh Attorney General’s Office of Bangladesh People’s Republic of Bangladesh attorneygeneraloffice.bd@gmail.com Dear Attorney General Abu Mohammad Amin Uddin, We, the undersigned 15 press freedom and human rights organizations, write to urge you to withdraw opposition to pre-trial bail for Nusrat Shahrin Raka,
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Egypt: Quash Verdicts and Stop Unfair Trials by Emergency Courts
Tags Share We, the undersigned organizations call on Egyptian President Abdelfattah Al-Sisi to immediately quash the verdicts against seven arbitrarily detained human rights defenders, activists and politicians, convicted of bogus charges and sentenced to long prison terms in grossly unfair trials by emergency courts solely for peacefully exercising their human rights. The organizations also urge
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