Interviews

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MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS: ‘Europe instrumentalises human suffering to deter migration’

Interviews 04 March 2021

CIVICUS speaks about the situation of migrants and refugees in Greece with Maya Thomas-Davis, an Advocacy and Communications Officer at the Legal Centre Lesvos AMKE, a Greek civil society organisation that provides free legal information and assistance to migrants who arrive by sea to Lesvos, where the Centre is based.

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THAILAND: ‘Young people question the government abusing their rights and compromising their future’

Interviews 01 March 2021

CIVICUS speaks to Amnesty International Thailand’s executive director, Piyanut Kotsan, about the Thai pro-democracy movement and the repression of protests.

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SLOVENIA: ‘The government has taken advantage of the pandemic to restrict protest’

Interviews 26 February 2021

CIVICUS speaks about the recent right-wing shift in Slovenia with Brankica Petković, a researcher and project manager at the Peace Institute in Ljubljana.

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INDIA: ‘CSOs that dare speak truth to power are attacked with politically motivated charges’

Interviews 23 February 2021

CIVICUS speaks to human rights lawyer and researcher Mrinal Sharma about the state of civic freedoms in India.

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ECOCIDE: ‘Perpetrators of environmental destruction should be prosecuted just like war criminals are’

Interviews 22 February 2021

CIVICUS speaks with Jojo Mehta, co-founder and Executive Director of Stop Ecocide International and Chair of the Stop Ecocide Foundation.

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GREECE: ‘We need a change in narratives as well as in policies towards migration’

Interviews 17 February 2021

CIVICUS speaks about the situation of migrants and refugees in Greece and the role of civil society in policymaking with Lefteris Papagiannakis, Head of Advocacy, Policy and Research at Solidarity Now and former Vice Mayor on Migrant and Refugee Affairs for the Municipality of Athens.

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UNITED NATIONS: ‘The existing human rights system must be criticised, while still being defended’

Interviews 16 February 2021

CIVICUS speaks with Brian Schapira, Director of Institutional Relations at the Center for Latin America´s Opening and Development (Centro para la Apertura y el Desarrollo de América Latina, CADAL), a foundation based in Argentina that works to defend and promote human rights.

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ETHIOPIA: ‘The June 2021 election is between democratic life and death’

Interviews 15 February 2021

CIVICUS speaks to Mesud Gebeyehu about the political conflict in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia and the highly contested upcoming Ethiopian national election, scheduled to take place in June 2021 amidst an ongoing pandemic and a continuing state of emergency.

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MYANMAR: “If this coup is not overturned, there will be many more political prisoners”

Interviews 10 February 2021

CIVICUS speaks about the recent military coup in Myanmar with Bo Kyi, a former political prisoner and co-founder of the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (AAPP).

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ANGOLA: “The ruling party sees local elections as a threat”

Interviews 30 January 2021

View the original interview in Portuguese here CIVICUS speaks about the situation in Angola with Pascoal Baptistiny, Executive Director of MBAKITA – Kubango Agricultural Benevolent Mission, Inclusion, Technologies and the Environment, a civil society organisation based in the Cuando Cubango province in southern Angola.

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COSTA RICA: ‘The protests highlighted unresolved structural problems’

Interviews 27 January 2021

CIVICUS speaks about the recent protests in Costa Rica with Carlos Berríos Solórzano, co-founder of Asociación Agentes de Cambio-Nicaragua (Association Agents of Change – Nicaragua) and member of Red Previos (Central American Youth Network).

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NAMIBIA: ‘Protests against gender-based violence were triggered by collective hope’

Interviews 26 January 2021

CIVICUS speaks to Bertha Tobias about the recent protests against femicide and gender-based violence (GBV) in Namibia.

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PERU: ‘Constitutional debate has taken on new relevance as a result of the protests’

Interviews 20 January 2021

CIVICUS speaks about recent protests in Peru with Rafael Barrio de Mendoza, a researcher on processes of territorial transformation from Grupo Propuesta Ciudadana, a consortium of 10 civil society organisations with a presence in 16 regions of Peru.

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#UN75: ‘Moving forward, the UN should continue to provide access through accessible virtual platforms’

Interviews 19 January 2021

Following the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations (UN), CIVICUS is having conversations with civil society activists, advocates and practitioners about the roles the UN has played so far, the successes it has achieved and the challenges ahead.

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GUATEMALA: ‘The protests were a reflection of both social organisation and citizen autonomy’

Interviews 15 January 2021

CIVICUS speaks about recent protests in Guatemala with Sandra Morán Reyes, an advocate of women’s and LGBTQI+ rights.

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#BEIJING25: ‘More women in public office translates into better government and a more robust democracy’

Interviews 17 December 2020

For the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, CIVICUS is interviewing civil society activists, leaders and experts about the progress achieved and the challenges ahead.

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UNITED STATES: ‘The 2020 election is a political and moral mandate against fascism’

Interviews 16 December 2020

CIVICUS speaks about voter suppression and its implications for US democracy with Yael Bromberg, Chief Counsel for Voting Rights at The Andrew Goodman Foundation, an organisation that works to make the voices of young people – one of the most underrepresented voter groups in the USA – a powerful force for democracy.

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#BEIJING25: ‘All efforts towards gender equality must be built upon intersectionality and power-shifting’

Interviews 04 December 2020

For the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, CIVICUS is interviewing civil society activists, leaders and experts about the progress achieved and the challenges ahead.

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RUSSIA: ‘Human rights activism can be expected to increase in reaction to repression’

Interviews 25 November 2020

CIVICUS speaks with Leonid Drabkin, a coordinator with OVD-Info, an independent human rights civil society organisation (CSO) that documents and helps the victims of political persecution in Russia.

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UGANDA: ‘No candidate can possibly win the election without young people’s votes’

Interviews 13 November 2020

CIVICUS speaks with Mohammed Ndifuna, Executive Director of Justice Access Point-Uganda (JAP).

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SOUTH KOREA: ‘North Korean defectors and activists face increasing pressure to stay silent’

Interviews 06 November 2020

CIVICUS speaks with Ethan Hee-Seok Shin, a legal analyst with the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG), a Seoul-based civil society organisation (CSO) founded by human rights advocates and researchers from five countries.

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ITALY: ‘The Sardines movement is all about building self-confidence in the progressive side of politics’

Interviews 03 November 2020

CIVICUS speaks to Andrea Garreffa, one of the founders of the Sardines movement (Movimento delle Sardine), a grassroots political movement that began in November 2019 in Bologna, Italy, in protest against the hateful rhetoric of right-wing populist leader Matteo Salvini.

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ARGENTINA: ‘Cultural change enabled legal change, and legal change deepened cultural change’

Interviews 30 October 2020

Ten years after the Equal Marriage Law, a milestone for Latin America, was passed in Argentina, CIVICUS speaks with LGBTQI+ leader María Rachid about the strategies that the movement used and the tactics that worked best to advance the equality agenda – tactics that may well still be relevant today.

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COVID-19: ‘This is not just a health crisis but also a justice crisis’

Interviews 28 October 2020

CIVICUS speaks to Abigail Moy, Director of the Legal Empowerment Network, the largest community of grassroots justice defenders in the world.

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MYANMAR: ‘Opposition parties complain that the election body censors their messaging'

Interviews 15 October 2020

CIVICUS speaks to award-winning journalist Cape Diamond about the upcoming elections in Myanmar.

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UN75: ‘Civil society needs to be the conscience of the global community’

Interviews 01 October 2020

To mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations (UN), CIVICUS is having conversations with civil society activists, advocates and practitioners about the roles the UN has played so far, the successes it has achieved and the challenges ahead.

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LEBANON: ‘This crisis should be handled with a feminist vision’

Interviews 23 September 2020

CIVICUS speaks to Lina Abou Habib, a feminist activist based in Beirut, Lebanon, about the civil society response to the emergency caused by the explosion on 4 August 2020.

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KAZAKHSTAN: ‘The quarantine became a sort of cover for the government to persecute civil society’

Interviews 22 September 2020

CIVICUS speaks to Asya Tulesova, an environmental and civic rights defender from Kazakhstan.

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POLAND: ‘The crisis of democracy and human rights will deepen’

Interviews 15 September 2020

CIVICUS speaks with Małgorzata Szuleka about Poland’s recent presidential elections, held under the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ruling party’s use of anti-LGBTQI+ rhetoric to mobilise its electorate.

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#UN75: ‘The COVID-19 pandemic showed that multilateral institutions are essential’

Interviews 11 September 2020

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COVID-19: ‘We need a new social contract founded on rights and the principle of shared prosperity’

Interviews 10 September 2020

CIVICUS speaks about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and emergency measures on labour rights, and the civil society response, with Owen Tudor, Deputy General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

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SERBIA: ‘The political crisis will deepen as a large number of people lack representation’

Interviews 08 September 2020

CIVICUS speaks with Ivana Teofilović about the causes of recent protests and the government’s reaction to them, as well as about the elections held in Serbia under the COVID-19 pandemic.

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CHILE: ‘This historic constituent moment was achieved by citizens’

Interviews 04 September 2020

CIVICUS speaks with Marcela Guillibrand De la Jara, Executive Director of the Chilean Volunteer Network (Red de Voluntarios de Chile) and General Coordinator of Now It’s Our Time to Participate (Ahora Nos Toca Participar).

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NIGERIA: ‘The global anti-racist protests renewed the call for police accountability’

Interviews 02 September 2020

CIVICUS speaks to Nelson Olanipekun, a human rights lawyer and the founder and team lead of Citizens’ Gavel, a Nigerian civic tech organisation that works to increase the pace of the delivery of justice by promoting access to justice, citizens’ engagement and the use of digital technologies.

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POLAND: ‘We invented new forms of protest because we had to’

Interviews 01 September 2020

CIVICUS speaks to Klementyna Suchanow, an activist, author and researcher based in Warsaw, Poland, about the recent announcement by the Polish government that it will begin the process to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention on Violence against Women.

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HONG KONG: ‘The National Security Law infringes on freedom of expression and is intensifying self-censorship’

Interviews 27 August 2020

CIVICUS speaks with Patrick Poon, an independent human rights researcher, on the human rights situation in Hong Kong after a new National Security Law (NSL) was passed in June 2020.

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#BEIJING25: ‘We are outraged at discrimination and are turning our claims into action’

Interviews 23 August 2020

In the run-up to the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, due in September 2020, CIVICUS is interviewing civil society activists, leaders and experts about the progress achieved and the challenges ahead.

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BURUNDI: ‘The election of new leaders is not synonymous with democracy’

Interviews 19 August 2020

CIVICUS speaks about the recent elections in Burundi with a civil society activist who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.

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SRI LANKA: ‘Media control gave the government a definite advantage’

Interviews 18 August 2020

CIVICUS speaks to Sandun Thudugala, Head of Programmes at the Law and Society Trust (LST), about the legislative elections held in Sri Lanka on 5 August 2020, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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COVID-19: ‘Refugees paid a heavier price during a crisis that many believed impacted on us all equally’

Interviews 14 August 2020

CIVICUS speaks about the situation of climate refugees and increasing challenges under the COVID-19 pandemic with Amali Tower, founder and executive director of Climate Refugees.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: ‘We are part of a global anti-racist movement’

Interviews 13 August 2020

CIVICUS speaks with Elena Lorac, coordinator of Reconoci.

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COVID-19: ‘We need public policies that reduce and redistribute unpaid care work’

Interviews 12 August 2020

CIVICUS speaks about the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender inequalities and civil society responses with Gala Díaz Langou, director of the Social Protection Programme of the Center for the Implementation of Public Policies for Equity and Growth (Centro de Implementación de Políticas Públicas para la Equidad y el Crecimiento, CIPPEC).

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BOLIVIA: ‘The pandemic became a justification for tightening information control’

Interviews 10 August 2020

CIVICUS speaks about the Bolivian political landscape and upcoming elections in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic with Cristian León, programme director of Asuntos del Sur and coordinator of Public Innovation 360, a project focused on strengthening democracy at the subnational level which is currently being implemented in three Latin American countries.

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TURKEY: ‘If we withdraw from Istanbul Convention, it means we don't believe in gender equality’

Interviews 10 August 2020

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MALAWI: ‘Civil society expects new gov. to place rights at the top of its agenda’

Interviews 05 August 2020

CIVICUS speaks with Michael Kaiyatsa, acting Executive Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR), about the recent presidential election in Malawi, which were held in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and led to a change of government.

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: ‘The times ahead may bring positive change’

Interviews 04 August 2020

CIVICUS speaks about the recent elections in the Dominican Republic, held in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, with Hamilk Chahin, coordinator of the Citizen Manifesto for Electoral Transparency, and Addys Then Marte, executive director of Alianza ONG.

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SINGAPORE: ‘Opposition parties were given unfavourable coverage by the state media and had difficulty accessing voters’

Interviews 27 July 2020

CIVICUS speaks to human rights defender Jolovan Wham about the recent elections in Singapore, which were held in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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ARGENTINA: ‘We must stop attempts to go back to the injustices of the pre-pandemic era’

Interviews 15 July 2020

CIVICUS speaks about the COVID-19 crisis and civil society responses with Sebastián Pilo, co-director of Civil Association for Equality and Justice (Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia, ACIJ), a civil society organisation (CSO) dedicated to defending the rights of the most disadvantaged groups and strengthening democracy in Argentina.