A message from Interim Co-Secretary Generals, Claire Nylander and Mandeep Tiwana
Dear CIVICUS members, partners and allies
Hope this message finds you well despite the turbulent times we are living in. As we navigate the impact of a surge in authoritarian and populist politics and the senseless cruelty of war, our commitment to strengthening civil society and citizen action to create more peaceful, just, equal and sustainable societies is steadfast.
Highlights
We continue to amplify civil society voices affected by war, join global calls for a ceasefire in the Middle East and take a human rights perspective on events in the region through CIVICUS Lens, our rolling analysis initiative. Vitally, we also continue to draw attention to the devasting impacts for civil society of conflicts in Myanmar, Sudan, Ukraine and elsewhere.
Our most recent CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist, released in September, draws attention to deterioration in civic space conditions in Argentina, Azerbaijan, Thailand and Zimbabwe. In particular, we’ve worked to highlight the absurdity of Azerbaijan, a petrostate with closed civic space, hosting the COP29 climate summit at a time when civil society’s demands for climate justice must be heard.
Our commitment to advocate for the release of arbitrarily imprisoned human rights defenders such as Guatemalan journalist Jose Ruben Zamora remains strong. We are ever mindful of the risks of civil society activism. Our communications team has produced a short film on the life of assassinated Honduran environmental and community activist, Juan Lopez.
Our work on the Digital Democracy Initiative and the EU System for Enabling Environment (SEE) is in full swing, including through the strengthening of our systems and compliance processes. Opportunities for partnership through digital resilience and crisis response grants can accessed through our website. Our Freedom of Peaceful Assembly team recently hosted the #WeRiseCampaign Harvesting Week resulting in 15 new partnership agreements.
We remain active at the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, the UN Human Rights Council and at the UN headquarters, including in our work to highlight the importance of civic space and civil society participation in the Summit of the Future processes.
A Week of Engagement in Johannesburg
We’re pleased to let you know that we recently concluded a successful board meeting at our offices in Johannesburg during the week of 11 November, when we also launched our annual Membership Engagement Month. Members of our board and staff engaged in strategic discussions and interacted with Affinity Group of National Associations (AGNA) and the Youth Action Team (YAT) representatives. The week provided opportunities to reflect on the US election results and the resulting risks for civil society around the world.
Membership Engagement Month (MEM2024): Connecting, Learning, and Growing Together
We are now in the midst of our Membership Engagement Month, a key opportunity for CIVICUS members to connect, learn and collaborate on themes that matter the most to our community. With a curated line-up of events, webinars and information sessions, MEM2024 offers a robust schedule to enhance engagement, foster learning and drive change. We encourage all our members to get involved and engage during this month. For more information, please get in touch with our team at membership@civicus.org.
Secretary General Transition
This September’s UN General Assembly meetings in New York offered a stellar opportunity to bid farewell to our outgoing Secretary General, Lysa John, through a heartwarming physical event well attended by our members, partners and staff. During Lysa’s tenure we made vital strides as a secretariat and an alliance.
The search for our next Secretary General is on and is currently being led by our Board. If you are interested in applying or know of someone who may be, more information on the job requirements and application process can be found here.
Looking ahead – Annual General Meeting, Innovation Awards and CIVICUS Monitor Findings
We will be holding our Annual General Meeting online on Thursday, 5 December 2024 in two batches to account for different time zones. We encourage all members to participate and learn about our work and achievements. We will be sharing highlights from our latest Annual Report, which is now out.
We are working on the next iteration of the Nelson Mandela-Graca Machel Awards with a cohort of previous awardees and will be formally releasing a call for applications before the end of the year.
Following a super-election year, our annual CIVICUS Monitor ratings and People Power Under Attack report will be released in early December to coincide with International Human Rights Day. Do watch this space.
With gratitude and solidarity,
Claire Nylander and Mandeep Tiwana
