Interviews

Featured

Zombies in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Satirical protest & mobilisation against Apartheid-era policies in Cape Town

Interviews
On 30 September 2019 an unusual scene flooded Cape Town as ‘zombie’ protesters fled through the inner city in a satirical protest against the re-emergence of Apartheid-era policies in post-Apartheid South Africa.
Featured

ANTI-RIGHTS GROUPS: ‘Their true objective is to eliminate all government policies related to gender’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists, leaders and experts about their experiences of backlash from anti-rights groups and their strategies to strengthen progressive narratives and civil society responses.
Featured

Civil Society in Latin America makes its way into sharing economy

Interviews
This article is part of the #StoriesOfResilience series, coordinated by CIVICUS to feature groups and activists on their journey to promote better resourcing practices for civil society and to mobilise meaningful resources to sustain their work.
Featured

CONSPIRACY THEORIES: ‘When social trust has been eroded, people don’t know what to believe’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists, leaders and experts about their experience of facing backlash by anti-rights groups and how they are responding.
Featured

CLIMATE CHANGE: ‘There is no respect for the role of civil society’

Interviews
Portuguese CIVICUS speaks with Adriana Ramos, advisor at Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), a Brazilian civil society organisation that has worked since 1994 to propose solutions to social and environmental issues.
Featured

MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS: ‘Hate speech is driven by unequal power relations and negative stereotypes’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists, leaders and experts about their experience of facing backlash by anti-rights groups.
Featured

ETHIOPIA: ‘Civil society can play a key role in overcoming divisions’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks to Yared Hailemariam, Executive Director of the Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia, about recent political reforms in Ethiopia, the opening opportunities for civil society and the prospects for further change.
Featured

UNITED NATIONS: ‘Civil society has proved itself to be an indispensable ally’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks to Ben Donaldson, Head of Campaigns at the United Nations Association – UK (UNA-UK).
Featured

HUMAN RIGHTS: ‘People have a great desire for positive stories’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks with Saleem Vaillancourt, a journalist and media producer who works to promote the rights of Iran’s Bahá’í community and to encourage positive action to realise human rights.
Featured

CHILE: ‘The COP needs the participation of civil society’

Interviews
In a context of great mobilisation on climate action around the world and in the run up to the next Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP 25), which will take place in Chile in November 2019, CIVICUS speaks with Gabriela Burdines of Fiscalía del Medio Ambiente (FIMA), a civil society organisation that since 1998 has worked to promote access to environmental justice and related legislation in Chile.
Featured

ANTI-RIGHTS GROUPS: ‘They don’t think human rights are universal, or they don’t view all people as equally human’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists, leaders and experts about their experience of facing backlash by anti-rights groups.
Featured

INDONESIA: ‘We often face threats for reporting on abuses in Papua’

Interviews
Since August 2019, there have been mass protests in Papua and West Papua, Indonesia.
Featured

MYANMAR: ‘The government needs to open the doors’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks with Nay Lin Tun, a doctor and civil society humanitarian worker in Myanmar, about conflict in Rakhine State, the difficulties faced by minorities in the region, and civil society’s work to provide help.
Featured

VIETNAM: ‘The government is using non-state actors against minority religions’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks with Thang Nguyen of Boat People SOS (BPSOS), a civil society organisation based in the USA and Thailand, about the challenges for civil society and religious minorities in Vietnam, and about their work to enable civil society responses.
Featured

ANTI-RIGHTS GROUPS: ‘They want to stop us because we do make a difference’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists, leaders and experts about their experiences of facing backlash by anti-rights groups.
Featured

THAILAND: ‘Nobody should go to jail simply for expressing their opinions’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks with Sutharee Wannasiri, a human rights activist in Thailand who has been facing criminal prosecution and a civil lawsuit as a result of reporting on abuses of migrant worker rights by a Thai poultry company while working as a researcher with Fortify Rights, a human rights organisation.
Featured

BRAZIL: ‘Discrimination and hate speech are becoming normalised’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists, leaders and experts about their experiences of backlash from anti-rights groups and their strategies to strengthen progressive narratives and civil society responses.
Featured

ARTISTIC FREEDOM: ‘Artists are targeted because art is a powerful messaging vehicle’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks about the state of artistic expression with Srirak Plipat, Executive Director of Freemuse, the main international civil society organisation advocating for and defending the freedom of expression of artists.
Featured

CHILE: ‘Anti-rights groups become stronger when their narrative emanates from the government’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists, leaders and experts about their experiences and actions in the face of backlash from anti-rights groups and their strategies to strengthen progressive narratives and civil society responses.
Featured

REFUGEE RIGHTS: ‘It’s about finding ways to make refugee voices stronger’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks to Evan Jones of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN) about the challenges that refugees face in Asia and civil society’s work to help realise refugee rights.
Featured

UNITED NATIONS: ‘Anti-rights groups come in under the pretence of speaking about human rights’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists and their allies about their experience of facing backlash by anti-rights groups.
Featured

CLIMATE STRIKES: ‘We take risks because there is no security without a future’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks to Arshak Makichyan, a Russian violin student at the Moscow Conservatory who started weekly climate strikes on 15 March 2019.
Featured

BOTSWANA: ‘Anti-rights groups are emerging in reaction to progressive gains’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists and leaders about their experiences of backlash from anti-rights groups and their strategies to strengthen progressive narratives and civil society responses.
Featured

HIV/AIDS: ‘We need a global civil society movement that stands together for all rights’

Interviews
  CIVICUS speaks to Alessandra Nilo, co-founder and Executive Director of GESTOS – HIV and AIDS, Communication and Gender, a civil society organisation (CSO) created in 1993 in Recife, Brazil.
Featured

REFUGEE RIGHTS: ‘My status doesn't represent me’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists and leaders about their human rights work, their experiences of backlash from anti-rights groups and their strategies to strengthen progressive narratives and civil society responses.
Featured

LGBTQI RIGHTS: ‘There is an ongoing desire among many to more closely regulate morality’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists, leaders and experts about their experiences of backlash from anti-rights groups and their strategies to strengthen progressive narratives and civil society responses.
Featured

WOMEN’S RIGHTS: ‘Progressive civil society must claim for itself the defence of life’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists, leaders and experts about their experiences of backlash from anti-rights groups and their strategies to strengthen progressive narratives and civil society responses.
Featured

SRI LANKA: ‘People are scared of expressing themselves freely’

Interviews
In April 2019, more than 250 people were killed and hundreds injured in a terror attack in Sri Lanka that targeted three churches and three hotels.
Featured

ONLINE CIVIC SPACE: ‘We shouldn’t expect tech giants to solve the problems that they have created’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists and leaders about their experiences of backlash from anti-rights groups and their strategies to strengthen progressive narratives and civil society responses.
Featured

PERU: ‘The ultra-conservative tide is affecting democratic life and fundamental rights’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists and leaders about their experiences of backlash from anti-rights groups and their strategies to strengthen progressive narratives and civil society responses.
Featured

HONG KONG: ‘We may have not achieved our demands yet, but we've built solidarity’

Interviews
Millions of people took to the streets of Hong Kong in June 2019 to protest against a proposed Extradition Bill that would have allowed the government to send people, including foreigners, to face trial in mainland China, in courts controlled by the Communist Party.
Featured

‘In response to anti-right narratives, we need to support one another in all of our diversity’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists and leaders about their experiences of backlash from anti-rights groups and their strategies to strengthen progressive narratives and civil society responses.
Featured

WOMEN’S RIGHTS: ‘Anti-rights groups are trying to take away our acquired rights’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists and leaders about their experiences of backlash from anti-rights groups and their strategies to strengthen progressive narratives and civil society responses.
Featured

‘People cannot stay on the sidelines when their rights are being taken away’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists and leaders about their experiences of backlash from anti-rights groups and their strategies to strengthen progressive narratives and civil society responses.
Featured

'Global policy-making can greatly benefit from the expertise of regular citizens'

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks to Antoine Vergne, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Missions Publiques, an impact-driven organisation that seeks to improve policy-making at the local, national and global levels by bringing the voices of citizens into policy discussion and negotiations.
Featured

Ghana: “People want CSOs to stay and thrive, not to shut down”

Interviews
FRENCH This article is part of the #StoriesOfResilience series, coordinated by CIVICUS to feature groups and activists on their journey to promote better resourcing practices for civil society and to mobilise meaningful resources to sustain their work.
Featured

CHINA: ’30 years after Tiananmen, the world witnesses the consequences of nurturing China’

Interviews
4 June 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown in China when hundreds, if not thousands, of unarmed peaceful pro-democracy protesters were killed in Beijing and tens of thousands of demonstrators in cities across China were arrested.
Featured

THE GAMBIA: ‘I use my art to effect change, and that is why I am being targeted’

Interviews
On his way to participate in International Civil Society Week (ICSW) in Belgrade, Serbia, the Gambian rapper and activist Killa Ace was detained at the Gambia-Senegal border on flimsy excuses, causing him to miss his flight and making him unable to attend the gathering.
Featured

SINGAPORE: ‘Making politicians the arbiters of truth invites abuse’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks to Ja Ian Chong, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore, about the so-called ‘anti-fake news law’ currently under discussion in Singapore, which is expected to be passed in 2019.
Featured

BRAZIL: ‘This is a moment of fragility for civil society’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks with Pedro Strozenberg, Ombudsman of Rio de Janeiro, about the situation of human rights and the regression of space for civil society in Brazil.
Featured

CHINA: ‘Crackdown on Jasic labour struggle seeks to eliminate unrest during economic downturn’

Interviews
In July 2018, police in Shenzhen in Guangdong Province, China detained and used physical violence against several workers at Jasic Technology, a welding equipment manufacturer, after they attempted to form an autonomous union under the auspices of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), the sole legal vehicle for workers’ rights in China.
Featured

UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR: ‘Human rights defenders are ordinary people doing extraordinary things’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks to Michel Forst, United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, about key challenges and responses, and the role of civil society organisations (CSOs) in his mandate.
Featured

UNITED STATES: Voices of vulnerable groups are suppressed if their votes are not counted

Interviews
During the US midterm elections held in November 2018, great numbers of eligible voters, particularly from historically marginalised groups, were prevented from voting due to a number of barriers that were deliberately erected to deny them a voice in politics.
Featured

G20: ‘Global activism must reconnect with the real experiences of people on the ground’

Interviews
In December 2018 thousands of people marched against neoliberal policies in Argentina, where the Summit of the G20 Heads of State was being held in the capital, Buenos Aires.
Featured

PAKISTAN: ‘The environment for civil society is suffocating’

Interviews
Throughout 2018, the space for civil society continued to deteriorate in Pakistan, particularly in the context of July’s election.
Featured

CAMBODIA: ‘We need to bring back to life the spirit of the Paris Peace Agreement’

Interviews
The conditions for civil society in Cambodia have continued to deteriorate.
Featured

ECUADOR: ‘Today better conditions exist for the exercise of democratic freedoms’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks about apparently improving conditions for civil society in Ecuador with Daniel Barragán, Executive Director of the International Centre for Research on the Environment and Territory (CIIAT) at Universidad de Los Hemisferios.
Featured

Dominican Republic: Big Opportunities, Bigger Challenges for Civil Society Domestic Resourcing

Interviews
This article is part of the #StoriesOfResilience series, coordinated by CIVICUS to feature groups and activists on their journey to promote better resourcing practices for civil society and to mobilise meaningful resources to sustain their work.
Featured

SUDAN: Demands for political change are fuelled by brutal state response to protests

Interviews
Following a year that was marked by the violent repression of any kind of opposition and dissent in Sudan, a situation that has continued unchanged into 2019, CIVICUS speaks to Abdel-Rahman El Mahdi, a civil society activist and founder of the Sudanese Development Initiative (SUDIA).
Featured

ESCAZÚ: ‘The work of civil society made a huge difference’

Interviews
After several years of negotiations, in March 2018 the first environmental treaty for Latin America and the Caribbean, the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, known as the Escazú Agreement, was approved.

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