Message from Lysa John, CIVICUS Secretary-General The nature of civic space has changed significantly since the start of the pandemic.

By Andrew Firmin, Editor-in-Chief of CIVICUS Protests have been rebuffed, brutally, by states.

By Mandeep Tiwana, Chief Programmes Officer at CIVICUS Major political transformations in modern history have been catalysed through largely peaceful protests.

By David Kode, Advocacy & Campaigns Lead at CIVICUS The 68th Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) has just concluded.

  By Josef Benedict, CIVICUS Monitor Across the globe every year, workers and trade unions gather together on 1 May which is Labour Day to commemorate the hard-fought struggle for labour rights and to make demands of their governments’ where they are failing to protect workers.

Photo by Sharon Seretlo/Gallo Images via Getty Images By Mawethu Nkosana, LGBTQI+ Advocacy and Campaigns Lead at CIVICUS & Safia Khan, Innovation and Communications Officer at CIVICUS From the rise in student activism to the rise in levels of xenophobia in South Africa, Mawethu and Safia list five human rights trends since COVID-19 took over.

Source: Wikicommons By Masana Ndinga-Kanga, the Crisis Response Fund Lead and Advocacy Officer for the Middle East/North Africa region at CIVICUS In recognising how moments of crisis heighten already existing inequalities, it is worth reflecting on how women activists have been able to conduct advocacy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aarti Narsee, Civic Space Reseacher at CIVICUS spoke to JacarandaFM about the challenges faced by women human rights defenders, activists, feminists and journalists when online.

Nous, l'équipe de jeunesse de CIVICUS, sommes très reconnaissants à l'équipe d'action jeunesse (YAT) 2019-2020, un groupe de jeunes leaders accomplis et inspirants du monde entier qui travaillent ensemble pendant un an et demi pour insuffler une vision plus adaptée aux jeunes au sein de CIVICUS et servir d'inspiration à d'autres organisations à travers le monde pour que les jeunes soient au centre et prennent des décisions qui ne laissent pas derrière eux le pouvoir de 1,8 milliard, la plus grande génération de jeunes que le monde ait jamais connue.

By Emily Standfield, CIVICUS Member and data volunteer A month into Joe Biden’s presidency, the U.

Champions of Change is an initiative started by the Pathfinders to highlight advocates who have made an impact in their communities and have helped to create peaceful, just and inclusive societies (SDG16+).

By CIVICUS youth On the celebration of the International Youth month in August 2020, CIVICUS Youth launched a new mentorship format for the ten participants of the Youth Action Lab.

Protests against new abortion laws have erupted across Poland.

By Aarti Narsee, Civic Space Researcher for Europe and Central Asia at CIVICUS The year 2020 tested democracy and civic freedoms in many ways.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted politics and power for years to come, pushing the boundaries of political systems, impacting or delaying election outcomes and fuelling popular movements.

By Mandeep Tiwana, Chief Programmes Officer at CIVICUS It’s an anathema that in the 21st century when humanity claims to have made great progress in cultural and technological spheres that we should still have prisoners of conscience.

By Mandeep Tiwana, Chief Programmes Officer at CIVICUS Two events generated significant interest and global solidarity in the final days of December 2020.

By Lysa John, Secretary-General of CIVICUS & Mandeep Tiwana, Chief Programmes Officer at CIVICUS The UN was conceived as a ground-breaking experiment in global cooperation and people-centred multilateralism.

By Emily Standfield, Data Volunteer with CIVICUS & Matthew Reading-Smith, Communications Coordinator at CIVICUS The events of 2020 accelerated the decline of civic freedoms.

By Hafiz Jawad Sohail, Climate Reality Leader and SDGs Advocate from Pakistan 2020 was a year of real superheroes.

Advocacy and Campaigns Head at CIVICUS David Kode explains to SABC News the several drivers of civic space violations in Africa including mass protests that were met with violent repression, and electoral processes, mostly presidential elections.

By Débora Leão, Civic Space Researcher at CIVICUS and Suraj K.

By Mandeep Tiwana, Chief Programmes Officer at CIVICUS The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is 72 years old, but still the civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights it protects remain fiercely contested, with 87% of the world's population living in countries with very poor civic space conditions.

By Sylvia Mbataru and Ine Van Severen, Civic Space Researchers at CIVICUS Fundamental civic rights, including freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression, deteriorated across Africa in 2020.

By Oriana Castillo, CIVICUS In July 2019, the VUKA! Coalition, a group working to coordinate civil society actors to reclaim civic space across the globe, supported VUKA! ally Alternativas y Capacidades to bring together 25 CSOs from across Mexico for a pilot workshop on strategies to counteract the stigmatisation and demonisation of civil society in the country.

By Inés Pousadela Barely weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns arose about the safety of women trapped indoors with their abusers, and data showing spikes in gender-based violence (GBV) quickly reached the news headlines.

By Lisa Majumdar, Advocacy Officer, CIVICUS Amidst a flurry of high-profile elections this week, it will be Myanmar’s turn to go to the polls on 8 November.

By Inés Pousadela, Senior Research Specialist and Andrew Firmin Editor-in-Chief at CIVICUS Covid-19 has unleashed a multi-dimensional, once-in-a-generation crisis.

By Marianna Belalba Barreto, Civic Space Research Lead at CIVICUS and Aarti Narsee, Civic Space Research Officer More than half a year after the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, governments are continuing to waste precious time and energy restricting human rights rather than focusing on fighting the virus.

TW/CW: transphobia, physical abuse, emotional abuse, financial abuse, sexual violence, rape, torture, murder, self-harm, drug and alcohol abuse I am Saro Imran, a transgender activist running a community-based organisation in Pakistan.

By Inés Pousadela, Senior Research Specialist No year could be more appropriate than 2020 for the world to celebrate its first International Day for Universal Access to Information (September 28).

By David Kode, Advocacy and Campaigns Lead As Côte d’Ivoire’s much-anticipated 31 October elections approach, voters are facing a familiar sequence of events.

Conversation between Enhle Khumalo, CIVICUS Youth and Abigail Freeman, Alliance for Gender Justice Liberia in August 2020.

By Mandeep Tiwana, Chief Programmes Officer at CIVICUS This 75th anniversary offers a unique opportunity to examine the UN’s failings and reflect on ideas to improve its functioning.

By David Kode, Advocacy and Campaigns lead at CIVICUS With two months to go before elections in Côte d’Ivoire, the priority is to ensure that there is an enabling environment for campaigns and rallies to be held without violence.

Lysa John, Secretary-General of CIVICUS Participation is a human right, deeply rooted in our need to form and voice opinions and influence the structures shaping our lives.

Has the Coronavirus crisis changed our view of politicians and what citizens now expect from them? Leaders around the world have dealt with the pandemic very differently, with some being praised for their handling of the outbreak, and some criticised.

Mise à jour de la Secrétaire Générale : Août 2020

On International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (9 August), we commend the work of imprisoned lawyer and activist Sudha Bharadwaj, defender of Indigenous communities in India.

By Inés Pousadela, Senior Research Specialist at CIVICUS In early 2020, as millions went into lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the environment experienced temporary relief from the impacts of human activity.

By Inés Pousadela, Senior Research Specialist at CIVICUS In many circles, ‘civil society participation’ has become a fashion accessory that everyone wants to flaunt.

Around the world, protesters have gathered in solidarity with the US Black Lives Matter movement as they demand an end to systemic racism.

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly exacerbated, accelerated, and further exposed global challenges.

By Aarti Narsee, Civic Space Researcher at CIVICUS European civil society is in a tug-of-war between restrictions, which may lead to the rise of a more fragile, authoritarian Europe, and resilience, which may suggest a more optimistic future in which civil society emerges stronger than before.

SDG Knowledge Hub’s interview with Mandeep Tiwana, Chief Programmes Officer Five years since the passage of the SDGs, the impulse in many quarters is still to scale up existing approaches, rather than to push for fundamental changes in how our societies and economies function to better realize rights.

By Josef Benedict, civic space researcher at CIVICUS The right to peaceful assembly is a fundamental freedom and key pillar for civic space.

This article was originally published on Revista da Plataforma Portuguesa das ONGD By Lysa JohnSecretary-General, CIVICUS@LysaJohn Covid-19 victims dying in hospital corridors and on the streets of Guayaquil, Ecuador.

By Andrew Firmin, CIVICUS Editor-in-Chief  Many of us continue to live in states of lockdown, but even as we do so the debate about what kind of world we want to re-emerge to should be an urgent one.

Discussion between Lysa John and Agnes Frimston for Chatham House Undercurrent podcast  In this week's episode of Chatham House's podcast Undercurrents, Lysa John, Secretary General of CIVICUS joins Agnes in discussing the impact that the coronavirus pandemic has had on worker's rights across the world.

Interview with Lysa John about why protecting workers during the COVID-19 crisis is crucial.