Tags Share By Rachel Margolis Latin America is one of the world’s most dangerous regions for human rights activists, and the criminalization of human rights defenders and civil society actors — loosely defined as the misuse of criminal law to impede their work — is on the rise. President Joe Biden’s administration recently launched an
Tags Share The election of Francia Márquez as Colombia’s vice president is potentially the biggest move toward expanding civic space the country has seen in decades. Not only will Márquez be the first Black woman to hold executive office in Colombia, she is also an established environmental activist and advocate for Indigenous and poor people’s

Tags Share As the rest of the world welcomed a new month on June 1, residents of the village of Missong in Cameroon’s north-west region were thrown into mourning. Nine civilians, including an 18-month-old girl, were shot dead by soldiers in what the authorities themselves described as a “grossly disproportionate” and “hasty” response to “a
Tags Share Bangladeshi authorities should immediately reverse their decision to deregister prominent human rights organization, Odhikar, eleven organizations said today. Human rights defenders should be allowed to conduct their work without fear of reprisals, intimidation, and harassment from the authorities. On June 5, 2022, Bangladesh’s Non-Governmental Organization Affairs Bureau sent a letter to Odhikar, denying

Tags Share WASHINGTON, D.C., June 7, 2022 – Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights today honored two Cameroonian human rights defenders – Maximilienne C. Ngo Mbe and Felix Agbor Nkongho (Balla) – and presented them with its 39th annual Human Rights Award at a ceremony in the U.S. Senate’s Kennedy Caucus Room in Washington, D.C. “We
Share Maximilienne C. Ngo Mbe is a Cameroonian human rights defender with over 30 years of experience, and leader of the Central African Human Rights Defenders Network (REDHAC). Since 2010, she has been leading REDHAC in its efforts to promote civic space and fundamental freedoms throughout Central Africa through investigations of human rights abuses, advocacy
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