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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“Boys State” Panel Holds Up Mirror to Country’s Division
Tags Share In the midst of an election season marked by historic rancor and voter disenfranchisement, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights offered a look behind the scenes of a political world sometimes forgotten these days—a high-energy, values-driven electoral process spearheaded by young people. Boys State is a documentary about the Texas summer program that educates
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The Deterioration of Democracy and Human Rights in Tanzania
Tags Share To: President John Magufuli Excellency, We, the undersigned civil society organizations, are deeply concerned about the continued deterioration of democracy, human rights and rule of law in the United Republic of Tanzania. In the past five years, we have documented the steady decline of the country into a state of repression, evidenced by
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Brazilian Indigenous Leader Wins Robert Kennedy Human Rights Award
Tags Share Alessandra Korap Munduruku was named the winner of the 2020 RFK Human Rights Award for her work defending the rights, ancestral lands, and culture of indigenous people in Brazil. Read the full article here. Module type not found: newsArticles
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Calling on the Myanmar Government to Act
Civic space repression and exclusion of Rohingyas undermine Myanmar’s election.
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We Cannot Condone the Myanmar Government’s Lies
Tags Share Of course, the details never added up. But now, with recent confessions from two Myanmar Army soldiers, the truth hangs in the open air, exposing the blatant lies that government officials have told about their genocide against the Rohingya. That truth was already clear to the dozen of us—human rights lawyers, activists, documentarians,
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The Crucial Role of Journalists in Protecting Peaceful Assembly
Tags Share When we think about journalists and human rights, we naturally think first about freedom of expression. Journalists, like all of us, have a right “to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds,” as stated in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). And their exercise
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RFK Human Rights Wins Civic Space Case Before UN Working Group
The decision found journalist Omoyele Sowore was arbitrarily detained for practicing his fundamental rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
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Deep Concern as Cuban Government Gains Seat on UN Human Rights Council
Tags Share In response to Cuba’s election to a fifth term on the Human Rights Council, 85 Cuban and international human rights and freedom-of-expression organizations, in conjunction with independent media outlets, released the following statement: We are deeply concerned about the decision to grant Cuba a new opportunity to have a seat on the Human
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International Criminal Court’s Work Blunted by Petty Campaign
Tags Share Human rights advocate Kerry Kennedy describes how US state department sanctions are hampering the ICC’s efforts to fight atrocities across the globe Your report (Human rights lawyers sue the Trump administration for ‘silencing’ them, 1 October) sheds much-needed light on an unprecedented effort to undermine and dismantle global efforts to fight impunity. Carrying
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UN: Illuminating the Right to Peaceful Assembly
In our new blog series, we’re exploring the U.N. Human Rights Committee’s recently adopted General Comment 37.
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Cuban Authorities Must Cease Harassment of UNPACU Activists
Tags Share In response to the uninterrupted acts of intimidation and violence committed in the last two months by Cuban authorities against members of the dissident organization Unión Patriótica de Cuba (UNPACU), its leader José Daniel Ferrer, and his family, more than 30 Cuban and international human rights organizations issued the following statement: We call
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Two Steps Forward, One Step Back for Justice for the Rohingya
Tags Share Earlier this month, former members of the Myanmar Army provided the first public admission of guilt by soldiers who carried out the 2017 genocidal attacks against the Rohingya, marking a significant development in the effort to ensure justice and accountability for perpetrators. As Fortify Rights noted, the men are believed to be the
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