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
Tags Share (July 2, 2020, Washington D.C.) – Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights strongly condemns the draconian national security law imposed by China to crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong and those who express dissent against the Chinese government and Communist Party. The law severely curtails civic space in Hong Kong, and strips the…
In Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro's security forces have used disappeareances to silence prominent political opponents and instill fear.
Tags Share A Joint Statement by the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances, Asian Human Rights Commission, International Federation for Human Rights, Odhikar, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and World Organisation Against Torture on the occasion of International Day in Support of Victims of Torture 2020 Manila/Hong Kong/Paris/Dhaka/Washington, D.C./Geneva, 25 June 2020: On the occasion of…
Tags Share Washington D.C y Tlapa de Comonfort, Guerrero – El 20 de junio de 2009, fue ejecutado extrajudicialmente en un retén militar el joven nahua Bonfilio Rubio Villegas por elementos del ejército mexicano. Su caso, como muchos otros en el país, se vio fuertemente marcado por un contexto de pobreza, desigualdad, militarización e impunidad.…
In June 2009, Bonfilio Rubio Villegas was extrajudicially executed at a military checkpoint. His case, like so many others, was characterized by a context of poverty, inequality, militarization, and impunity.
The Bolivarian regime has found a sinister way to keep dissidents in check: kidnapping their loved ones to scare them into submission and silence.
Tags Share Enforced disappearance has been described as one of the most serious and cruel human rights violations, and is recognized under international law as a crime against humanity. This state-sanctioned practice of detaining people while refusing to acknowledge their fate is particularly alarming because it removes victims from the full protection of the law…
A new report from RFK Human Rights and Foro Penal show forced disappearances play a critical role in the Venezuelan government’s efforts to muzzle opponents and instill fear.
Este análisis sin precedente se basa en información sobre más de 700 casos de desaparición forzada.
The first of its kind analysis pulls together data on more than 700 cases of enforced disappearance, offering rare insights into the Maduro regime’s patterns, priorities, and perceived threats.
Tags Share Las organizaciones y medios de comunicación abajo firmantes respaldamos la petición presentada el pasado 8 de junio en Cuba ante la Asamblea Nacional, el Consejo de Estado, el Tribunal Supremo, la Fiscalía General y el presidente de la República para declarar inconstitucional el Decreto Ley 370 de 2019. Las 64 personas que suscribieron…
Tags Share The undersigned organizations and media outlets support the petition presented on June 8 in Cuba before the National Assembly, the State Council, the Supreme Court, the Office of the Attorney General, and the President of the Republic declaring 2019’s Decree-Law 370 unconstitutional. The 64 people who signed the petition did so on behalf…
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