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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Abuse of Cyber Security Laws to Unduly Limit Civic Space
Tags Share Honourable Chairperson, Honourable Commissioners, State delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, This is a joint statement from the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) and the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. We take this opportunity to congratulate the new Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson of the Commission, and wish them all the best as
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Statute of Limitations Lifted in Murder of Journalist Nelson Carvajal
Tags Share The organizations urge Colombia to give full compliance to the Inter-American Court Judgment [Miami/Washington D.C./Bogota, August 19, 2019] The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights (RFK Human Rights) and the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) celebrate that the Colombian Justice has eliminated the statute of limitations regarding the murder of
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UN Committee Calls Out Bangladesh’s Use of Torture
Tags Share Global, 14 August 2019: – Following serious concerns expressed by the UN Committee against Torture (CAT) about torture in Bangladesh, seven human rights organizations call on the Bangladeshi government to recognize the magnitude of the problem and address and implement the nearly 90 recommendations made by the UN body. On 9 August 2019,
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Voices From Kumarakapay
Tags Share Following a series of massacres in Kumarakapay and Santa Elena de Uairén in February 2019, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and Foro Penal traveled to South America for a fact-finding mission gathering testimonies from Venezuelan survivors and witnesses alongside the Brazilian border. These rural indigenous communities were targeted and attacked by Venezuelan armed
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RFK Human Rights, Universidad San Francisco de Quito Host Strategic Litigation Workshop
The workshop focused on the protection of civic space in Quito, Ecuador.
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IACHR Grants Precautionary Measures for Quelvin Jimenez Villalta
Tags Share [Washington DC and Guatemala City, July 23, 2019] The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted precautionary measures in a resolution on July 3, 2019 in favor of Quelvin Otoniel Jimenez Villalta, a Guatemalan indigenous lawyer and human rights defender. As the IACHR recognized, Quelvin Jimenez has been facing grave and urgent threats,
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NowThis: The Massacre You Haven’t Heard About
In 2019, the Venezuelan military under Nicolás Maduro opened fire on a largely Indigenous community, blocking aid and punishing protesters. Wilmer Valderrama explains what you need to know about the country's ongoing human rights crisis.
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Calling for the Release of Malawian Human Rights Defender Gift Trapence
Tags Share We are human rights and health organizations gravely concerned by the arrest on July 8 of Mr. Gift Trapence, the Vice-Chairperson of the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) and the Executive Director of the Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP), a Malawian civil society organization. We are calling for the immediate release
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Protecting the Historic Archive of the National Police
Tags Share Guatemala City, Washington D.C., Geneva, and San Jose, May 30, 2019. As international organizations we express our profound concern regarding the risks facing the Historic Archive of the National Police (Archivo Histórico de la Policía Nacional, AHPN) in Guatemala, given the recent declarations of the Minister of the Interior, who announced that the
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The Dominican Republic Must Respect and Protect the IAHRS
Tags Share Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, May 29, 2019 – The undersigned organizations express our concern regarding the State’s rejection of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ recent resolution with respect to the Dominican Republic, in which the Court reiterated its jurisdiction to hear cases against that State. The Inter-American Court determined that the Dominican
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Statement on Detention of Al Jazeera Journalist Mahmoud Hussein
Tags Share As soon as we learned of Mahmoud Hussein’s incarceration, we knew he was wrongfully detained. That’s why we brought his case to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, who ruled in agreement last January. Today, after years of inaction, the Egyptian government finally moved to act in accordance with the international ruling.
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RFK Human Rights Condemns the Arrest and Continued Detention of Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi
Tags Share Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights strongly condemns the arrest and continued detention of Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi, founder of the Human Dignity Film Institute, which puts on the annual Human Rights/Human Dignity International Film Festival in Myanmar and produces documentaries and films on human rights issues. Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi was
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