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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Global Civil Society Statement on Myanmar
Tags Share We, the undersigned organizations, call on the United Nations Security Council to urgently impose a comprehensive global arms embargo on Myanmar to help prevent further violations of human rights against peaceful protesters and others opposing military rule. In recent weeks, Myanmar security forces have killed hundreds of people, including dozens of children, merely
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Why We Must Protect Journalists, Our Pandemic Storytellers
Tags Share Journalists are our pandemic storytellers. They are asking tough questions to expose the truth about how governments are managing the crisis, examining the collapse of our social safety nets, disseminating the latest information about how to stop the spread of the disease, and facilitating the conversation about how to smartly distribute a vaccine.
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UN: Stand with Bangladeshi Journalists on Press Freedom Day
Tags Share New York, NY (May 3, 2021)–The Bangladesh government’s increasingly violent crackdown on media freedom is of urgent concern on World Press Freedom Day, nine nongovernmental organizations said in a letter today to Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Bachelet and UN experts should publicly and vigorously express concerns over
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Organizaciones De Derechos Humanos Presentan Amicus Curiae en Apoyo a La Tutela Para Personas Defensoras De Derechos Humanos Y Líderes Sociales en Colombia
Tags Share El Servicio Internacional para los Derechos Humanos, Front Line Defenders, el Centro de información Sobre Empresas y Derechos Humanos, Women’s Link, Alianza Mundial por la Participación Ciudadana CIVICUS y Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights presentaron un amicus curiae sobre el derecho a defender derechos como derecho autónomo ante la Corte Constitucional de Colombia
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In Support of Colombian Protection Action for Human Rights Defenders
RFK Human Rights presented an amicus brief on the right to defend human rights before the Colombian Constitutional Court.
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Venezuelan Authorities Must Free Human Rights Defender Orlando Moreno
The Venezuelan state must end the harassment, illegal detention, and criminalization of human rights defenders.
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Colombia Must Investigate Attacks Against Journalist Jineth Bedoya
Tags Share On May 25, 2000, Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya, who was then working for El Espectador, a Colombian newspaper, was kidnapped in front of the Bogotá Model National Prison, where she had gone to conduct an interview. Bedoya was kidnapped for 16 hours, during which time she was subjected to physical, sexual, and psychological
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Joint Amicus Brief Supports Colombian Protection Action for Human Rights Defenders
Tags Share International Service for Human Rights, Front Line Defenders, (the Center for Information on Business and Human Rights, CIVICUS, and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights presented an amicus brief on the right to defend human rights as an autonomous right before the Colombian Constitutional Court on April 21, 2021. Colombia is the most deadly
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Venezuela Must Cease Repression of Civil Society
Venezuela needs a peaceful solution to its human rights crisis, which will not be possible without an active and independent civil society pushing it forward.
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RFK Human Rights Urges Egyptian Authorities to Release Ahmed Samir Santawy
Egyptian authorities must ensure prompt and impartial investigations into Ahmed Samir Santawy’s enforced disappearance and ill-treatment by security forces.
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Letter to Secretary Blinken on the Human Rights Crisis in Myanmar
Tags Share April 7, 2021 To: Antony Blinken, Secretary of State CC: Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor; Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; Jeff Zients, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator; Samantha Power, USAID Administrator Nominee Secretary Blinken: We write as concerned human rights organizations, humanitarian organizations, medical professional associations, labor organizations, and refugee
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Amicus Brief Calls for Colombia to Better Protect Journalists
In our amicus brief with GW Law School, we argue that the State of Colombia had a reinforced due diligence duty to prevent and investigate the violence suffered by Bedoya for being a woman, a journalist, and a human rights defender in the country’s armed conflict context.
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