During the 29th Session of the UN Human Rights Council (15 June - 3 July 2015), CIVICUS made a number of joint and individual interventions to highlight restrictions on civil society space. The interventions, including 9 parallel side events and 10 oral statements, underscored pressing thematic and country specific concerns on the rights to freedom of assembly, association and expression and persecution of human rights defenders, which require the Council’s attention.
Side events:
- The misuse of anti-terrorism laws in Africa
- Azerbaijan: The repressive side of the European Olympic Games
- Overcoming restrictions on women human rights defenders in the MENA region
- Freedoms of peaceful assembly and of association in the context of natural resource exploitation
- Civil society space in Central Asia: Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan
- Supporting an enabling environment for LGBTI civil society
- Eritrea's human rights crisis through the eyes of victims
- Defenders and journalists in Syria and Iraq: The need for protection
- Human rights defenders at imminent risk in Yemen during wartime
- Statement on discrimination and violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity
- Restrictions on civil society in the context of the extractive industries sector: Ecuador
- Continued persecution of civil society in Ethiopia and Azerbaijan
- Interactive Dialogue with the Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea
- Interactive Dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on on Belarus
- Working group on discrimination against women: Egypt
- Civic space under threat across Central Asia, Russia and Eastern Europe
- Panel discussion on the effects of terrorism on the enjoyment by all persons of human rights and fundamental freedoms
- End of session summary
