CIVICUS World Alliance for Citizen Participation

Commonwealth People's Forum 2011

Opening Plenary: The Global Context for Civil Society

by Ingrid Srinath

Where do we, civil society, find ourselves as we near the end of 2011?

The heady optimism of the 1990s following the fall of the Berlin wall and its promise of a global wave of democracy and freedom, and the growing power of citizen action symbolized by the protests at the WTO in Seattle were quickly followed by a decade of the “war on terror” used as an excuse by many governments around the world to restrict freedoms of information, expression, and assembly. Instead of the sweeping vision of the Earth Charter and the Millennium Declaration we settled, in the wake of 9/11, for the relatively minimalist, technocratic MDGs.

Press Statement: Italian priest latest victim of extra judicial killing in the Philippines

Johannesburg. 24 October 2011. CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation strongly condemns the killing of Father FaustoTentorio, an Italian priest in the North Cotabato region of the Philippines on 17 October 2011. According to CIVICUS partner Karapatan, an alliance of human rights organisations in the Philippines, Fr. Tentorio is the 54th victim of extra-judicial killings since President Benigno Aquino III came into power in June 2010.

Fr.Tentorio worked for over three decades among the indigenous people in the Cotabato area advocating for indigenous people's land rights against the incursions of big business, especially by mining corporations. He was outspoken against military presence in the villages and was involved in exposing deliberate attempts to marginalise indigenous people by powerful individuals acting in complicity with state agencies. He also blamed the security forces for being tools for suppression of people's rights.

Egypt: Relentless attack on civil society threatens transition to democratic governance

UN General Assembly Should Condemn the Violence in Syria: Civil society joint letter

This week in e-CIVICUS

• People power for aid effectiveness
• CIVICUS Secretary General at Commonwealth People's Forum
• Joint Open Letter on Bahrain
• Cuba 'Ladies in White' founder Laura Pollan dies
• Bahrain: Repression against workers and attacks against Trade Union Rights are still going on
• G20 finance ministers face growing public anger for failing to reform financial system
• Civil Society at a Crossroads?

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Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and CIVICUS

Today the 12th session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) comes to an end and with it the first cycle. 193 States have brought their country reports and have stood on the podium for their human rights record to be reviewed and discussed. The UPR process has also provided a new enabling environment for CS to be heard and recognized as an important stakeholder. It is quite an achievement and needs some assessment.

But before doing so, allow me some comments on this last session. CIVICUS was involved as never before. We helped, supported and registered CS delegations from Venezuela, Moldova and Uganda. For the Ugandan delegation we supported also financially the representative from the Ugandan NGO Forum. We organized a side event to highlight in particular issues related to Freedom of Assembly, Expression and Association and were able to bring the fractured parts of the Ugandans together to form one strong CS voice. (See presentations and photos attached thanks to Gabrielle, my Intern) We also organized informal meetings with Governments from Norway, the EU, Poland and Switzerland and Representatives from the OHCHR.

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