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December 2011
Issue: 67



Welcome to Civil Society Watch Bulletin, an e-newsletter of updates and analyses concerning civil society's rights to freedom of association, assembly and expression around the world. The Bulletin is compiled by the staff at Civil Society Watch, a programme of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation. Please feel free to forward the Bulletin to friends and colleagues. We welcome your comments and contributions!
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FREEDOM HOUSE: Countries at the Crossroads 2011
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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: “We Live as in War,” Crackdown on Protestors in the Governorate of Homs, Syria
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INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF JURISTS: E-Bulletin on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights
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INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP: Conflict Risk Alert - Egypt: The Revolution Returns
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CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation is an international movement of civil society with members and partners in over a hundred countries. CIVICUS nurtures the foundation, growth and protection of citizen action throughout the world especially in areas where participatory democracy and citizens' freedom of association are threatened. The Civil Society Watch Project of CIVICUS seeks to mobilise quick, principled and effective responses to events that threaten civil society fundamental freedoms of expression, association and assembly.

Eurasia staged its final Eurasia IDEA Network meeting of the year in Almaty, Kazakhstan.  The event was attended by network members from all over the Eurasia region who discussed advocacy plans for 2012.  Additionally, the network is currently helping to stage the 2nd annual OSCE Civil Society Parallel Conference to be held this year in Vilnius, Lithuania.  Concurrently, CIVICUS Eurasia in conjunction with Civil Society Watch participated in the free Ales Bialiatski photo petition and continues to play an advocacy role in demanding freedom for the Belarusian human rights defender recently jailed on trumped up charges.

 

BRAZIL: Truth Commission for violations under military dictatorship set up
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UNITED NATIONS: General Assembly passes resolution to promote the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders
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Highlights

CIVICUS focuses spotlight on enabling environment at the 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan
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CIVICUS condemns harsh sentence handed out to Ales Bialiatski for defending human rights in Belarus
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CIVICUS calls for immediate end to violence against protestors in Egypt
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CIVICUS joins call for a joint session of the UN Human Rights Council on Syria
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CIVICUS highlights the need to protect civil society in five countries in advance of the 13th session of the UN Human Rights Council
Read submissions on
Bahrain, Brazil, India, Philippines and South Africa
 





BELARUS: UN experts criticise new restrictions on civil society freedoms
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Conviction of Ales Bialiatski on politically motivated charges widely condemned
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BURUNDI: Officials publicly threaten media as harassment mounts
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CAMBODIA: Women activists protesting forcible evictions made to face criminal charges 
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EGYPT: New NGO law proposed by civil society
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UN High Commissioner for Human Rights urges investigation into killings of protestors
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ETHIOPIA: Government urged to stop using anti-terror law to persecute journalists and opposition activists
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ISRAEL: Prime Minister freezes bills to limit foreign funding for now
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MEXICO: Human rights defenders receive death threats
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RUSSIA: Bill to penalise “promoting homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgenderism among minors”
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SOUTH AFRICA: Secrecy bill passed by parliament amid public outcry
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SYRIA: UN inquiry concludes crimes against humanity committed
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THAILAND: Activist journalist to go on trial for making negative references to the monarchy  

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Civil Society Watch (CSW) Online

Recently posted reports on CSW Online include: Israeli civil society organisations statement in the wake of attacks against activists and organisations; civil society response to the verdict in the trial of human rights defender Ales Bialiatski in Belarus; campaign for Chinese Human Rights defender Chen Guangcheng; worsening situation in Ethiopia; and the clampdown on freedom of expression in India. At a glance in November CSW Online registered 19 new users, was visited by 2,501 unique visitors and had 3130 page views. The online system witnessed the most new visitors from India, the United States, South Africa, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and China.






Interview with civil society activists: Andrey Yurov

Andrey Yurov, from the Moscow Helsinki Group, International Youth Human Rights Movement and Head of International Observation Mission in Belarus, talks to Adele Poskitt at CIVICUS during the OSCE Civil Society Parallel conference about the situation for civil society in Belarus.
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DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in this bulletin are a reflection of those contained in the original reports to which they are linked here, and are not necessarily those of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation.

CONTACT US

EDITORS
Mandeep Tiwana
Adam Nord
P.O. Box 933
Southdale, 2135
South Africa
1425 K Street NW
Suite 350
Washington DC 20005


DESIGN AND LAYOUT
Jessica Hume
Oluwakorede Asuni

 


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