By Mandeep Tiwana, Chief Programmes Officer

Although, people around the world generally hold positive opinions about the UN, its ability to respond to global crises remains constrained by state-centric bureaucratic impulses and the assertion of narrow interests by powerful countries.

This has worked to the detriment of people who seek the assistance of the international community to alleviate their suffering, including recently in Burundi, Libya, Myanmar, Palestine, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen and elsewhere.

Read on Inter Press Service News

By Mandeep Tiwana, Chief Programmes Officer at CIVICUS

Following the negotiated departure of international security forces and overthrow of the internationally backed government in Afghanistan, the Taliban ominously claimed freedom and sovereignty. They then went on to appoint an all-male cabinet comprising controversial figures under international sanctions for overseeing grave human rights abuses. The situation in Afghanistan—which has parallels with events in Myanmar some 2,000 miles east—presents several dilemmas for the rules-based international order overseen by the United Nations (UN) since the end of the Second World War.

Read on Diplomatic Courier

By Kgalalelo Gaebee, Communications Officer at CIVICUS & David Kode, Advocacy and Campaigns Lead for CIVICUS

As the global community commemorates the two decades since the abhorrent attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, it should also be time to reflect on the impact of what followed on human rights and rule of law in Africa. One of the legacies of 9/11 has been government’s use of counter-terrorism laws to target human rights defenders, opposition politicians, and others who express views contrary to those in power.

Many countries in Africa and across the world have used these laws as a pretext to criminalise dissent. Since 2001, there has been a marked increase in restrictions on civil society across Africa, directly correlated to the actions taken by states in the aftermath of the 9/11. Terrorism is typically broadly or vaguely defined in these counter-terrorism bills, and their provisions are frequently misused.

Read on African Argument

By Vanessa Stevens, Elisa Novoa, Freya Seath, and Sonya Friel

This year’s International Youth Day provided an opportunity to recognize how young people have endured the pandemic and to celebrate their actions for community recovery and resilience. It was also a call to the global community – including funders – to recognize the importance of the meaningful, universal, and equitable engagement of young people.

Read on Alliance Magazine

By Andrew Firmin, Editor-in-Chief at CIVICUS

Economic inequality soared while the super-wealthy cashed in. Meanwhile, international cooperation was largely lacking and vaccine nationalism became the order of the day. Civil society didn’t just supply help; civil society organisations instinctively connected their humanitarian response with demands that rights be upheld, for migrant workers, women, and LGBTQI+ people at risk of gender-based violence and Indigenous groups homeless people, among others.

The need for civil society was made clear; many people’s experience of this global emergency would have been much worse if civil society hadn’t acted. This made it all the more shameful that many states intensified restrictions on civil society and sought to prevent civil society holding states to account for their pandemic actions and omissions.

Read on World Benchmarking Alliance

By Andrew Firmin, Editor-in-Chief at CIVICUS

Protest works. In Myanmar, Palestine, Thailand, and around the world, people are taking to the streets to resist repression and win change. Because protest works, governments try to stop it: In country after country, new restrictions have been introduced and protesters face police violence.

Things got worse under the pandemic, as governments used lockdown restrictions as a pretext to restrict rights. But despite the constraints, people still protested, and often in the face of difficult odds, won breakthroughs. Here are recent examples of major protests that led to change.

Read on yes! Magazine

In Myanmar, thousands of pro-democracy supporters have taken to the streets since February to demand an end to the military coup. So far, the junta’s forces have killed over 800 people and abducted and detained thousands, often using brutal force to quell dissent. Despite the ongoing violence and repression, Burmese people remain resilient, continuing to gather to make their voices heard. 

Women are leading the call for freedom, making up more than 60 percent of protesters - and across the world, a growing network of women and girls is joining them in solidarity. Some are writing resistance poetry, others are selling traditional food at fundraisers, and even more are spilling onto the streets to make their voices heard.

Some of these women are seasoned protesters from renowned political families - but they are being joined by a younger generation of activists, appalled that democracy in Myanmar is still not a reality for their families back home. 

Here are their stories:

It is up to you and I to be the pillar for those struggling in Myanmar right now

University student Par Tha Hniang has been selling traditional Burmese food to raise money for the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar. She is from the Chin community, a persecuted ethnic group from western Myanmar, where she lived until she was seven. Now she lives in Lewisville, Texas, home to around 4,000 Chin refugees. 

There are no words left to describe the brutality of the Burmese military

Myra Dahgaypaw is the director of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, an organisation that works to raise awareness on the human rights violations and mass atrocities against ethnic and religious minorities committed by the Burmese military. She is from the Karen community, a persecuted group living in eastern Burma, and has first-hand experience of the violations committed by the military junta. 

Teenagers my age are dropping out of school to protest

17-year-old high school student Bawi Hnem Sung and her family fled Myanmar when she was only three. She is also from the Chin community in Lewisville, Texas, and is part of the Lewisville High School Chin Club.

The coup is a catastrophe for our motherland

Born into an activist family, Thant Tun has been involved in the struggle for democracy in Myanmar since birth. The current coup has had devastating ramifications for Thant - her god-daughter Khin Nyein Thu was detained in Yangon on 17 April and has been subjected to torture and abuse. From the U.K., Thant is a nurse who devotes her spare time to fighting for freedom in Myanmar.  

The coup in Myanmar spurred me to action

Supyae Yadanar writes resistance poetry and organises protests in Dublin, Ireland, where she is currently studying medicine. She is Advocacy Co-Lead of the Global Movement for Myanmar Democracy (GM4DM), an international coalition of grassroots organisations and individuals working to support Myanmar’s democracy.

We need help from the international community

Wai Hnin Pwint Thon’s father, Mya Aye, is a former and current political prisoner who has been at the forefront of Burma’s democracy movement for over 30 years. He was arrested in Yangon on the first day of the coup, February 1st.  Based in Geneva, Wai Hnin works for Burma Campaign UK, where she has advocated for the release of political prisoners for over ten years. 

To find out more about these activists and their work, read Newsweek's article ‘Myanmar Refugees Who Fled to Texas Fight for Democracy From Afar.

By Andrew Firmin, Editor-in-Chief of CIVICUS

Protests have been rebuffed, brutally, by states. The consequences of the violent response to those peaceful uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa 10 years ago are still lived with today. Under the pandemic, despite no evidence linking mass protests to infection spikes, many states have enforced rules violently and used Covid-19 as a pretext to introduce further restrictions on events, which are likely to linger far beyond the pandemic.

But despite repression, change has still come. 

Read on Alliance Magazine 

By Inés Pousadela, Senior Research Specialist at CIVICUS

In the year that has passed since the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has circled the globe. In country after country, people have stood up to oppression and demanded an end to systemic racism. A year on, those movements for justice remain active.

Something about the way George Floyd’s needless and cruel death was widely documented and shared on social media, made it resonate. What might have initially seemed to be one more dreadful case in the long and routine string of murders of Black people by US police had unexpected consequences, and far beyond the USA.

Read on Open Democracy

By Mandeep Tiwana, Chief Programmes Officer at CIVICUS

Major political transformations in modern history have been catalysed through largely peaceful protests. Sustained mass mobilisations have resulted in significant rights victories including expansion of women’s right to vote, passing of essential civil rights laws, dismantling of military dictatorships, ending apartheid, and legalisation of same-sex marriage.

In the past year, despite the disruptions of COVID-19, populist demagogues have faced stiff resistance from people driven by a hunger for justice and democracy. In Brazil, thousands came out to the streets to protest against horrendous bungling by the Bolsonaro administration in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic which has resulted in a monumental loss of lives. In India, thousands of farmers remain steadfastly defiant in camps outside Delhi to protest against hurriedly drawn-up laws designed to undermine their livelihoods and benefit big business supporters of Prime Minister Modi’s autocratic government.

Read on Inter Press Service News

By Andrew Firmin, Editor-in-Chief of CIVICUS

Elections should offer opportunities for citizens to make demands of their political leaders, debate alternatives and express dissent. People should go to the polls in the belief that their votes will count and their voices will be heard, and if presidents are proved to be corrupt, self-serving and unwilling to listen, they should be able to unseat them. All efforts should go into making the coming elections live up to these standards.

Although a look back at the recent history of Africa’s elections offers limited grounds for optimism, there have been some bright spots.

Read on Daily Maverick

By David Kode, Advocacy & Campaigns Lead at CIVICUS

The 68th Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) has just concluded. For civil society organisations, the commission provides an important forum where they can discuss human rights concerns and hold governments to account.

The African Commission and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights play a vital role in upholding fundamental freedoms; the court is the African Union’s continental human rights body, providing an alternative institution that citizens can turn to when they have exhausted all legal avenues in their country. 

Regional human rights bodies such as the African Court issue judgments that support fundamental freedoms. Often these decisions overrule rulings made by governments, and in reaction there is now a noticeable trend of African states withdrawing after a decision goes against them and attacking the institutions they helped to create. 

Read on Mail & Guardian

Freelance journalist Hopewell Chin'ono. Credit: Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights

By Sibahle Zuma, Researcher with CIVICUS

Access to accurate information is vitally important during the pandemic, so that people can understand how to protect themselves and their families, and to hold their governments to account for their response to the health emergency.

Just like the virus, the persecution of the press has no borders, affecting journalists in many countries across the region. In its latest global report, the CIVICUS Monitor, an online platform that tracks civic freedoms, documented that journalists had been detained in at least 28 African countries. This was the top civic rights violation recorded in Africa during the past year.

Read on Inter Press Service News 

Source: Open Democracy

By Susan Wilding, Head of CIVICUS' Geneva office

The Trial of the Chicago 7’ is up for six Oscars at the Academy Awards, to be announced on 25 April. The film, which dramatises the trial of seven social activists who opposed the Vietnam War, sheds light on key issues about the right to protest. It has particular resonance today – as is shown by the fact it is reportedly one of Netflix’s most-watched movies – when mass mobilisation is increasingly common across the globe.

Read on Open Democracy

By David Kode, Advocacy & Campaigns Lead at CIVICUS

In a familiar pattern than continues to be repeated, President Idriss Déby looks set to be elected for yet another term in Chad following this Sunday’s presidential elections. In power since 1990, this will be the 68-year-old incumbent’s sixth term.

President Déby’s victory at the ballot box may be all but assured, but that’s not to say he doesn’t face significant opposition. When he was nominated to be the ruling Patriotic Salvation Movement’s flagbearer this February, the announcement sparked widespread demonstrations. In the capital N’Djamena and other major cities, protesters took to the streets chanting “no to a sixth term!” and “Leave, Déby!”.

Read on African Arguments

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.

Read on The Daily Vox

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. In this time, as advocacy meetings have predominantly moved online within the context of a gendered digital divide, the consequences for women activists and their ability to work are yet to be fully understood.

Read on Advocacy Accelerator

Women journalists, feminists, activists, and human rights defenders around the world are facing virtual harassment. In this series, global civil society alliance CIVICUS highlights the gendered nature of virtual harassment through the stories of women working to defend our democratic freedoms. These testimonies are originally published on Global Voices through a partnership between CIVICUS and Global Voices.

For this Filipina journalist, every day is a battle with fear

There has been a relentless crackdown against independent media and journalists. Threats and attacks against journalists, as well as the deployment of armies of trolls and online bots, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, have contributed to self-censorship—this has had a chilling effect within the media industry and among the wider public. In this first part of the series, Filipina journalist Inday Espina-Varona tells her story.

Called a prostitute by the prime minister, a Slovenian journalist tells her story (Ler em portugues)

Evgenija Carl is an investigative journalist from Slovenia. After she produced a television report about the opposition SDS party in 2016, a leading politician at the time, Janez Janša, called her a “prostitute” on Twitter. When Janša later became Slovenian prime minister, the online abuse intensified. Read Evgenija Carl's story here.

Online rape threats connect Lebanese activist to ‘thousands of other women’ facing abuse (باللغة العربية)

Since October 2019, anti-government protests known as the “October Revolution” have erupted across Lebanon. Protesters have called for the removal of the government and raised concerns about corruption, poor public services, and a lack of trust in the ruling class. Protests have been met with unprecedented violence from security forces. Feminists have been at the forefront of the revolution and have stepped up to provide assistance in the aftermath of the explosion. In the third part of this series, Maya El Ammar, a Lebanese feminist writer, activist and communications professional, tells her story and the online abuse she continues to face. 

Personal attacks follow Burundi human rights defender into exile in Uganda (Lire en français)

Under the regime of President Évariste Ndayishimiye, journalists and rights defenders continue to face challenges. The arrest of political activists and the recent public announcement of the sentencing of 34 exiled people—including journalists and human rights defenders—to life imprisonment illustrate the obstacles to free expression in the country. Chantal Mutamuriza, a feminist, human rights defender, and founder of the Light For All NGO, tells us her story of the continuous online harassment she faces day in and day out.

Intimidation, censorship, and defamation in the virtual sphere

In Syria, hundreds of thousands of people have died since 2011. Numerous human rights violations have taken place during the Syrian crisis - arbitrary detentions, torture, assassination of journalists, and the violent repression of protests, make Syria one of the most volatile countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Originally from Syria, Weaam Youssef is Programme Manager for Women Human Rights Defenders for the Gulf Region and Neighboring Countries. This is the story of Weaam.

Herself a victim of cyberbullying, Lindsey Kukunda fights online violence against women in Uganda

More than half of Ugandan women experience physical violence, while one in five is subjected to sexual violence; many also face psychological abuse, forced and early marriage, and female genital mutilation. In 2014, Uganda introduced a law against pornography that has been used to target and prosecute women, especially women whose nude photos have been shared online without their consent. Lindsey Kukunda is a feminist, writer, and human rights defender. She is also the managing director of Her Empire, a feminist organization that runs two programmes: Not Your Body and The Mentor’s Network. Lindsey tells us her story. 

By Emily Standfield, CIVICUS Member and data volunteer

A month into Joe Biden’s presidency, the U.S. has rejoined nearly all the multilateral institutions and international commitments that it withdrew from under Trump. These include the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Accords. Most recently, on February 8th, the U.S. announced it would also rejoin the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) as an observer. The U.S.’ role in the human rights forum looks different than it did four years ago in light of its recent track record on civil liberties.

Read on Inter Press News Service

Angola has officially decriminalised same-sex relationships and prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation. LGBTQI+ advocacy lead for CIVICUS, Mawethu Nkosana spoke with eNCA's Sally Burdett on Angola's repeal of Anti-gay law.

Prominent Saudi female activist, Loujain al-Hathloul, who campaigned for women's right to drive, was sentenced to more than five years in prison in December 2020, after having already spent two years in detention. She is probably one of Saudi Arabia's most famous human rights defenders. She and other activists were detained in 2018 on charges including contacts with organisations hostile to Saudi Arabia. She was eventually convicted of various charges, including trying to harm national security and advance a foreign agenda. As she spends her 1000th day in prison activists from around the world are campaigning for her unconditional release. Masana Ndinga-Kanga the Middle East and North Africa Advocacy Lead at the global alliance of civil society organisations, CIVICUS, told SABC News that al-Hathloul's case is symbolic of the repression and silencing that women in Saudi Arabia face when they dare to speak out for their human rights.

Protests against new abortion laws have erupted across Poland. eNCA speaks to Aarti Narsee, a researcher at civil-society alliance CIVICUS.

By Aarti Narsee, Civic Space Researcher for Europe and Central Asia at CIVICUS

The year 2020 tested democracy and civic freedoms in many ways. After the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic in March, governments took unprecedented actions, such as imposing curfews, restricting people’s movements, and limiting or banning gatherings. According to international law, some of these measures went beyond the permissible bounds for limiting rights during public health emergencies, bounds meant to ensure that such measures are kept “proportionate, necessary, and nondiscriminatory.”

Read on Carnegie Europe

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. The right to a fair trial and due process under the law are part of customary international law. Yet, around the world, thousands of rights defenders are wrongfully imprisoned following flawed trials for their peaceful efforts to create just, equal and sustainable societies.

Read on The Wire

By Mandeep Tiwana, Chief Programmes Officer at CIVICUS

Two events generated significant interest and global solidarity in the final days of December 2020. A court in Saudi Arabia handed down a five years and eight months sentence to activist Loujain Al-Hathloul for publicly supporting women’s right to drive. Nicholas Opiyo, Ugandan human rights lawyer and defender of persecuted members of the LGBTQI community and political opponents of the president was arbitrarily detained on trumped up charges of ‘money laundering.’ Nicholas Opiyo was granted bail on 30 December following an outpouring of global support for his activism for justice. In handing out the verdict to Loujain Al-Hathloul, the court partly suspended her sentence raising hope that she might be released from prison in a couple of months due to time already served.

Read on Inter Press Service News

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. Born out of the ashes of the Second World War, its Charter outlines four lofty aspirations in the name of ‘We the Peoples’. These are to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war; reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, dignity and equality; establish conditions for justice under international law; and promote social progress and better standards of living. As the UN marks 75 years of its existence this year, has it achieved these objectives? To answer this question, our colleagues at CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance, asked thought-leaders and activists to reflect on the UN’s achievements, challenges and prospects for change.

Read on United Nations Association UK

By Emily Standfield, Data Volunteer with CIVICUS & Matthew Reading-Smith, Communications Coordinator at CIVICUS

The events of 2020 accelerated the decline of civic freedoms. The combination of restrictive legislation under COVID-19 and the continued rise of authoritarian governments contributed to a growth in unwarranted restrictions on free speech, the right to peacefully protest, and other fundamental rights protected in international law. A global report by the CIVICUS Monitor has found that, as of the end of 2020, more people than ever before are living in closed, repressed, or obstructed countries.

Read on The International Institute for Sustainable Development

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. Violations in the context of elections often involving the arrest of opposition members and pro-democracy activists, internet shutdowns, detention of journalists and crackdowns on protesters.

By Débora Leão, Civic Space Researcher at CIVICUS and Suraj K. Sazawal, co-author of ‘Civil Society Under Strain’

Since May, the CIVICUS Monitor, an online platform that tracks fundamental freedoms across 196 countries, documented dozens of incidents where law enforcement officers, dressed in riot gear and armed with military grade-equipment, responded to Black Lives Matter protests with excessive force. These include officers driving vehicles at crowds of protesters and firing tear gas canisters and other projectiles at unarmed people, leaving at least 20 people partially blinded.

Read on Inter Press Service

By Mandeep Tiwana, Chief Programmes Officer at CIVICUS

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. In its latest annual report, the CIVICUS Monitor, an online platform that tracks civic freedoms in 196 countries, downgraded four countries in West Africa. Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Niger and Togo have all been downgraded from the "obstructed" to "repressed" categories, meaning that people in these countries face serious restrictions when trying to exercise their fundamental rights.

Read on All Africa

By Andrew Firmin and Inés Pousadela

The pattern is now clear. In country after country, those who seek to limit rights attack civil society. Alongside tactics such as censorship and misuse of the criminal justice system, a weapon in growing favour is smearing and vilification.

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. But women’s rights organizations all over the world had already anticipated the worst. They knew that economic downturns, natural disasters, and disease outbreaks tend to have disproportionate impacts on women — women would experience the effects first, worst, and for longer. For decades their work had focused on the ways in which decisions made by governments, and government failures, disproportionately impact women, and they realized right away that this pandemic would be no exception.

Read more: Women's Media Center 

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. As the virus swept the globe, civil society organisations played a key role in responding, helping those most in need, filling the gaps left by governments and businesses, and keeping them accountable.

Read on Daily Maverick

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. Civic freedoms, including the freedom to associate, express views and peacefully assemble, are under threat, with states using broad and restrictive legislation to snuff out dissent. But people are organising and mobilising to demand rights. In the face of restrictions, civil society continues to fight back, often taking to the streets to do so.

Read on Inter Press Service News Agency

By Sylvia Mbataru, Civic Space Research at CIVICUS

Elections in East Africa have faced a wave of recent problems. Presidents pursuing extended term limits, allegations of rigged elections, contested results, locking out of independent observers, arrests of opposition candidates, restrictions on civil society: in recent times problems like these have been seen in Burundi, Kenya, Malawi and Uganda. With elections set for October 28, the spotlight now turns to Tanzania.

Read on the East African

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). The pandemic has exposed how important it is for information to flow freely and serve as the basis for decision-making by both governments and citizens. Never is access to information as important as at times when critical decisions are being made that will affect lives, livelihoods, and rights.

Read on Just Security

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. As political tensions grow, the country is once again seeing a rise in the threat of violence, clampdowns on protesters and the opposition, and an incumbent using the state to exclude his opponents.

Read on African Arguments

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. Experts and practitioners agree that urgent change is needed to enhance the relevance of the UN to people and their organisations around the world.

A major criticism of the UN is that its panoply of systems and structures seem both bewildering and self- serving to outsiders making it difficult to work through them. The UN’s bureaucracy is sprawling and often slow-moving. Its structure is rigidly hierarchical and powerful institutional inertia makes reform hard.

Read on Inter Press Service News

By Andrew Firmin, Editor-In-Chief of CIVICUS

On the International Day of Democracy, it’s time to say that elections can be held under the pandemic. Elections are, of course, not the only component of democracy, which must also include the ability to express dissent, take part in opposition and hold those in power accountable; but elections are a vital cornerstone of democracy, and countries that do not hold regular free and fair elections cannot be considered democratic.

Read on Equal Times

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. If not adequately addressed, the intense rivalry between party leaders and their supporters may degenerate into violence and instability.

Read on Daily Maverick

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. While communities are increasingly connected through technology, threats to unity are increasing. Growing polarization, climate change, wars, economic inequality and disease do not recognize national borders. Now, more than ever, people need to work together on shared problems. The global level has therefore become a legitimate sphere of action for people and organizations to claim rights and advance change in this Decade of Action for the SDGs.

Social activism is a powerful form of volunteering and can promote social inclusion through citizen engagement in participatory development processes. The most successful struggles of recent times – against colonialism and authoritarianism, and for women’s and LGBTQI rights – involve a mix of local-level, spontaneous and voluntary acts by citizens coupled with organizational planning and commitment. Through volunteering, individuals can make a difference. Such activism can begin with a like on social media although new technologies also offer tools to mobilize citizens in new and creative ways.

Only three per cent of the world’s population currently lives in countries where fundamental rights of expression, assembly and association are, in general, protected and respected. More recently, we have seen the threats to public health posed by the COVID-19 pandemic being used to restrict democratic freedoms and suppress democratic demands. The SDGs must therefore provide an opportunity to model new international and national democratic processes for civic engagement. It is important to raise awareness that the SDGs will not be achieved without clear mechanisms for civic engagement, such as volunteering and social activism.

We need a new mobilization of social-activism volunteering to unite communities. We need to stimulate and cultivate participation, confidence and competence. Similarly, development and volunteer-involving organizations must walk with volunteers through activism journeys. This will enable connections with citizens already actively volunteering at the grass roots level, building from local to global. One example of this is Innovation for Change (I4C), a community-led global network collaborating to protect civic space and inspired by global experiences to overcome restrictions to basic freedoms of assembly, association and speech.  Another is the Diversity and Inclusion Group for Networking and Action (DIGNA), a collaborative platform that enables individuals and organizations to co-create strategies for inclusion across diverse contexts.

The Decade of Action must be the starting point for a series of new and inclusive national and local debates about what unity means and how democratic values can be defined to encompass everyone, including groups that have been historically excluded and those not previously recognized as citizens. In doing so, we must promote the inclusion of excluded groups in existing democratic systems and institutions and create new spaces that allow volunteers to develop the skills and confidence needed for participation. Evidence from participatory budgeting and community-controlled grant-making shows that the best decisions are made when people are asked to collaborate to define economic and social priorities.

Fostering avenues for individuals and communities to contribute to the SDGs through volunteering can help create a powerful new narrative about our shared future – one that addresses contemporary grievances and offers a positive vision that unites communities. The Decade of Action is an opportunity to reaffirm the direct links between development and democracy and recognize the key roles of volunteers as change-makers in these processes.

Plan of Action to Integrate Volunteering into the 2030 Agenda

The Plan of Action to Integrate Volunteering into the 2030 Agenda is a framework under the auspices of the United Nations through which Governments, United Nations entities, volunteer-involving organizations, private sector, civil society including academia and other stakeholders come together to integrate volunteerism into the planning and implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by:

1. strengthening people’s ownership of the development agenda;
2. integrating volunteerism into national and global implementation strategies; and
3. measuring

You can read the full report here

By Débora Leão, Civic Space Research Officer at CIVICUS and Marianna Belalba Barreto, Civic Space Cluster Lead at CIVICUS

2019 was a year of collective action, and although the repression of civic space activism continues to rise, human rights defenders, activists, and civil society continue to operate, adapt, and resist. There are many success stories of human rights defenders who continue their work despite mounting restrictions, and it is important to recognise, celebrate, and learn from those stories and to work to bring these narratives to the surface of public attention to inspire us all. This article will look at a few cases of valuable achievements resulting from defenders’ work. In addition, the article will provide an overview of key restrictions and trends and what they can tell us about how civic space affects human rights defenders around the world and particularly in the Americas through the lens of the data collected over the course of 2019 by the CIVICUS Monitor.

Read on: Conectas

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. Is it time for a new social contract between people and their governments? Has there been too much division within nations, and the international community? As Covid-19 continues to rage, with persistently high death rates in many countries and leaving economic devastation in its wake, what do people now want from their leaders?

CIVICUS Secretary-General Lysa John joins Zeinab Badawi and James Graham on BBC's Global Questions.

By Aarti Narsee, Civic Space Researcher at CIVICUS & Orsolya Reich, Advocacy Officer at Civil Liberties Union for Europe

What little media independence remains in Hungary hangs by a thread. The country is in serious democratic trouble. The big question is: does the European Union have the political will to take decisive action?

Read on Visegrad Insight

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. As skies cleared and birds and animals claimed city spaces, it became apparent that the young people who had mobilized for the climate across the world in 2019 were right: Much environmental damage is the result of human action, and as such, can also be reversed through human initiative.

The experience of 2020 has made clear that whether the threat is climate change or a pandemic, humanity won’t survive its challenges unless people act collectively on the basis of scientific consensus.

Read on Yes Magazine

By Inés Pousadela, Senior Research Specialist at CIVICUS

In many circles, ‘civil society participation’ has become a fashion accessory that everyone wants to flaunt. And indeed, judging by the weak ways in which international institutions often offer participation, too many people in powerful places view civil society as merely an accessory.

Read on Transparency International