(20 March 2024) We, the undersigned civil society organisations, call for the immediate and unconditional release of Kashmiri journalist and human rights defender Irfan Mehraj. While on a professional assignment on 20 March 2023, Mehraj was summoned for questioning and arbitrarily detained by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Srinagar under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Mehraj is a well-regarded Srinagar-based independent journalist. He is the founding editor of Wande Magazine and a senior editor at TwoCircles.net.  He was a frequent contributor to leading news publications in Kashmir, India and internationally (including Deutsche Welle and TRT World).  Mehraj also previously worked as a researcher at the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), an internationally recognized leading civil society organisation in Indian-administered Kashmir that has done ground-breaking and extensive human rights documentation work in the region.

Mehraj is facing multiple politically motivated charges including ‘sedition’ and ‘funding terror activities’ along with internationally renowned human rights defender Khurram Parvez,[1] the Program Coordinator for JKCCS.  Parvez has been arbitrarily detained for over two and a half years. The NIA targeted Mehraj for being ‘a close associate of Khurram Parvez.’ Both Mehraj and Parvez are presently in pre-trial detention in the maximum-security Rohini prison in New Delhi, India.

In June 2023, United Nations experts expressed serious concerns regarding the charges against and arrest of Mehraj and Parvez, stating that their continued detention is ‘designed to delegitimize their human rights work and obstruct monitoring of the human rights situation in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.’ On 7 March 2024, UN experts sounded the alarm on the “harassment and prolonged detention of human rights defenders and journalists” in the country. The cases against Mehraj and Parvez seek to criminalize human rights work in Indian-administered Kashmir and the support for any such work under the guise of countering financing of ‘terrorism.’

The UAPA is a counter-terrorism law often used against human rights defenders by the Indian authorities to target, harass, intimidate, and detain them on bogus and politically motivated charges. In May 2020, UN experts expressed concerns over the non-conformity of various UAPA provisions with international human rights standards. In October 2023, they reiterated their concerns, stating that the pre-trial detention period of 180 days–which can subsequently be increased–is beyond reasonable. They called for a review of the UAPA in line with international human rights standards and with recommendations made by the Financial Action Task Force.

Irfan Mehraj’s detention is part of a growing crackdown against journalists and human rights defenders in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Since August 2019, when Jammu and Kashmir’s special status was arbitrarily revoked, there has been increasing harassment against the media. Journalists have been arrested, media outlets shut down, and self-censorship has become pervasive. In another emblematic case, on 29 February 2024, journalist Asif Sultan was re-arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police shortly after being released and having spent five years in detention under the UAPA and the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act. Kashmiri journalists also face travel bans and revocation of their passports by Indian authorities. Consequently, information flow from Kashmir–especially on human rights violations–has been severely restricted. 

Mehraj’s continuing arbitrary detention is emblematic of the Indian authorities’ escalating crackdown on human rights including the rights to freedom of expression and association in Indian-administered Kashmir. The detention of Mehraj and Parvez creates a chilling effect among other human rights defenders and journalists, thereby allowing grave and systemic human rights violations to continue with impunity and minimal transparency.

Our organisations, therefore, call for the immediate release of Irfan Mehraj and Khurram Parvez and for an end to all reprisals against Kashmiri human rights defenders and journalists. We urge Indian authorities to repeal or amend the UAPA and to bring it in conformity with international human rights standards. End the criminalisation of human rights defenders, journalists, and their invaluable work.

We also call upon Indian authorities to comply with their international human rights obligations by respecting, protecting, promoting, and fulfilling the human rights of everyone as well as by allowing civil society and the media to freely operate in Indian-administered Kashmir and India.

In addition, the authorities must cease their longstanding targeting, harassment, and forced closure of international civil society. Likewise, the authorities must refrain from attacking inter-governmental organisations, including UN Special Rapporteurs and other human rights mechanisms. These entities should have unfettered access to Indian-administered Kashmir and Kashmiri detainees.

Signed: 

Amnesty International
Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD)
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
Front Line Defenders
FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Human Rights Watch
International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
Kashmir Law and Justice Project
Martin Ennals Foundation
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

[1] Khurram Parvez is the Deputy Secretary-General of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Chairperson of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) and recipient of the 2022 Martin Ennals Award.

Today, we pay tribute to Cao Shunli, and all human rights defenders targeted by the Chinese government for their commitment to uphold the promise of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

Cao Shunli (曹顺利) was a brave Chinese woman human rights defender and lawyer. Working with fellow activists, Cao documented abuses, including the now-abolished ‘Re-education through Labour’ extrajudicial detention system, which she was also subjected to as a result of her human rights work. She campaigned for independent civil society to be meaningfully consulted and to be able to contribute to the Chinese government’s national reports to its first and second Universal Periodic Reviews (UPR). In an attempt to speak with government officials about the UPR, Cao courageously organised peaceful sit-ins with other concerned citizens outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs despite great risks. She also submitted information on extralegal detention and torture in China to the UN and expressed the hope that ‘if we could get even 100 words’ into a UN report, ‘many of our problems could start to get addressed.’

On 14 September 2013, Chinese authorities detained Cao at the Beijing Capital International Airport as she was traveling to Geneva to participate in a human rights training, one month before China’s second UPR. Cao was forcibly disappeared for five weeks, until she resurfaced in criminal detention and was charged with ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’. By October 2013, it was clear that Cao Shunli was experiencing serious medical issues while in detention. After months of denial of adequate medical treatment, rejected appeals by her lawyers for bail on humanitarian grounds, and despite multiple calls from the international community for her urgent release, Cao died of multiple organ failure on 14 March 2014 in a hospital under heavy police guard to keep out her lawyers and friends.

Cao was one of the 2014 finalists of the prestigious Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.

To this day, there has been no accountability for Cao Shunli’s death. The Chinese government refuses to admit wrongdoing, despite repeated calls in2014 and 2019 by UN Special Procedures experts for a full investigation into this ‘deadly reprisal’. 

Her case is one of the longest-standing unresolved cases in the UN Secretary-General’s annual reports on reprisals against civil society actors for engaging with the United Nations. China is one of the most consistent perpetrators of reprisals over time, and one of the most egregious perpetrators in terms of the sheer number of individuals targeted. 

Cao is not alone: her courage, but also the abuses she endured, are unfortunately those of other human rights defenders who paid a high cost for cooperating with the UN. Her close colleague, Chen Jianfang was forcibly disappeared under Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL) from 19-20 March 2019 after paying tribute to Cao Shunli on the 5th anniversary of her death. Chen was sentenced to four years and six months in jail for ‘inciting subversion of State power’ and left prison on 21 October 2023, after which authorities subjected her to strict surveillance. UN experts have raised with the Chinese government acts of reprisals against Chen Jianfang, but also Jiang Tianyong, Li Qiaochu, Dolkun Isa, Li Wenzu and Wang Qiaoling, among others. The recent instances of intimidation and harassment against NGO participants in China’s 4th UPR in January 2024 further highlight the gravity of the situation.

Li Qiaochu, Xu Zhiyong, Ding Jiaxi, Yu Wensheng, Xu Yan, Huang Xueqin, Li Yuhan, Chang Weiping: many other Chinese human rights defenders are today detained, disappeared, and at grave risk, for upholding the promise of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

These documented acts do not account for the even greater self-censorship and refusal to engage with the United Nation as a result of a generalised climate of fear. 

14 March 2024 will mark the 10-year anniversary of Cao Shunli’s death. Ten years ago, when ISHR and many other human rights groups sought to observe a moment of silence at the Human Rights Council in her memory, the Chinese delegation, together with other delegations, disrupted the session for an hour and half.

Cao Shunli is a paradigmatic case of reprisals, not only because of her prominence, but also due to the array of severe human rights violations against her, committed in total impunity. These range from Chinese authorities blocking her exit from her own country, enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, lack of due process, torture or ill-treatment and denial of adequate medical care, to subsequent death in custody, and the lack of accountability for these abuses. The lack of any progress in achieving accountability underscores the urgent need for continued international attention and pressure on the Chinese government to ensure justice for Cao and all human rights defenders who face persecution for their work.

Cao Shunli said before her death: ‘Our impact may be large, may be small, and may be nothing. But we must try. It is our duty to the dispossessed and it is the right of civil society.’

Today, we pay tribute to Cao Shunli’s legacy, one that has inspired countless human rights defenders in China and abroad. We urge UN Member States to call for a full, independent, impartial investigation into her death. We reaffirm that no perpetrator of reprisals, no matter how powerful, is above scrutiny, and that reprisals are fundamentally incompatible with the values of the United Nations and of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

Signatories: 

1. Art for Human Rights
2. ARTICLE 19
3. Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
4. Asian Lawyers Network (ALN)
5. Campaign for Uyghurs
6. CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
7. CSW (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)
8. Front Line Defenders
9. HK Labour Rights Monitor
10. Hong Kong Centre for Human Rights
11. Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC)
12. Hong Kong Watch
13. Human Rights in China
14. Humanitarian China
15. Humanitarian China
16. International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI)
17. International Campaign for Tibet
18. International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
19. International Service for Human Rights
20. International Tibet Network
21. Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada
22. Martin Ennals Foundation
23. Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD)
24. PEN International
25. Safeguard Defenders
26. The 29 Principles
27. The Rights Practice
28. Tibet Justice Center
29. Uyghur Human Rights Project
30. World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
31. World Uyghur Congress

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JOHANNESBURG - Global progress on gender rights slowed to nearly a halt in 2023 due to a severe backlash against decades of steady gains for feminist and LGBTQI+ movements, the global civil society alliance CIVICUS announced in a new report Thursday.

The 13th annual State of Civil Society Report finds that 2023 saw backsliding on gender rights all over the map, from Russia’s crackdown on LGBTQI+ activism, to a harsh new anti-gay law in Uganda, to anti-trans hysteria in the US, to the Taliban’s imposition of gender apartheid against women, to record levels of femicide in Latin America.

The overall lack of movement toward gender equality in 2023 contrasts previous years, when activists scored more victories in struggles for women’s and LGBTQI+ rights. Emblematic of this shift was the Caribbean, where several states decriminalised same-sex relations in 2022, but saw little to no progress in 2023 as governments pushed back on recent gains.

“There’s no way to avoid it: 2023 was not a good year for gender rights struggles,” said report co-author Ines Pousadela, who led CIVICUS research on gender rights. “The backlash in 2023 is especially alarming because any delay in the march toward gender equality puts women and LGBTQI+ people at further risk of violence and human rights violations.”


The State of Civil Society Report assesses activism around the world in 2023 and analyses the year’s events from a civil society perspective. The report is based on over 250 interviews and articles published by CIVICUS covering over 100 countries and territories.

Besides its findings on gender rights, the report details civil society’s role in responding to conflict, reforming the global governance system, addressing climate change and protecting democracy.

“Throughout 2023, civil society offered workable, people-centered solutions to the world’s most pressing problems,” said Mandeep Tiwana, CIVICUS Chief Officer of Evidence and Engagement. “But time and again, global institutions and leaders preferred to sideline activists rather than work with them to achieve positive change. If humanity is to overcome today’s multiple overlapping crises, civil society must have a seat at the table.”

For gender rights, the global slowdown on progress is largely the result of advances by a well-funded and connected conservative movement targeting women's rights and LGBTQI+ people, the report says.

But gender activists across the world still found new ways to resist oppression. In Afghanistan and Iran, women activists circumvented restrictions by holding clandestine demonstrations and building international solidarity. Amid rising femicides, feminists from Italy to Kenya to Bulgaria led major protests demanding policy action to end to violence against women.

“The backsliding on gender rights does not mean gender activists are on the backfoot,” said Pousadela. “On the contrary, they are redoubling their efforts to not only protect their rights, but to continue expanding them.”

Indeed, the report shows that civil society still scored numerous victories for gender rights in 2023. Thanks to dedicated and sustained civil society activism, Mexico legalised abortion, Mauritius defied the anti-LGBTQI+ trend in Africa by decriminalising same-sex relations and Estonia became the first ex-Soviet nation to legalise gay marriage.

Further, while abortion rights in the USA are at their worst in 50 years following the 2022 overturning of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Roe v Wade, in 2023 the pro-choice movement regrouped. They assisted women lacking access to reproductive health services, increased legal protections and erected barriers against further loss of rights. Poland, which banned abortion in 2021, elected a new government which promised to restore women's right to choose.

“These victories show that the fight is on for gender rights,” said Pousadela. “Even if there are short-term setbacks, sustained activism can make progress toward rights unstoppable in the long run. Civil society will keep struggling until there’s freedom and equality for all.”

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JOHANNESBURG – Governments and big polluters have shifted their tactics from denying climate science to repressing climate activism, with industrialised global north countries escalating clampdowns on climate protesters in 2023, the global civil society alliance CIVICUS announced in a new report Thursday.

In its 13th annual State of Civil Society Report, CIVICUS shows that the targeting of climate activism was a global phenomenon in 2023, from a Europe-wide crackdown on climate activists to Emirati authorities restricting civil society during COP28 to Uganda’s arrests of protesters against the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline.

“Our research over the last year shows that when it comes to climate, repression is the new denial,” said Andrew Firmin, who co-authored the report and leads CIVICUS research into climate activism. “With time running out to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, governments and big polluters should work with climate activists rather than trying to silence them.”

The State of Civil Society Report assesses activism around the world in 2023 and analyses the year’s events from a civil society perspective. The report is based on over 250 interviews and articles published by CIVICUS covering over 100 countries and territories. 

Besides its findings on climate activism, the report details civil society’s role in responding to conflict, reforming the global governance system, protecting democracy and expanding gender rights.

“Throughout 2023, civil society offered workable, people-centered solutions to the world’s most pressing problems,” said Mandeep Tiwana, CIVICUS Chief Officer of Evidence and Engagement. “But time and again, global institutions and leaders preferred to sideline activists rather than work with them to achieve positive change. If humanity is to overcome today’s multiple overlapping crises, civil society must have a seat at the table.”

Regarding climate, one of the most alarming trends in the report is the growing repression of climate activists in global north countries that are home to vibrant protest movements.

In the USA, police in Atlanta shot and killed activist “Tortuguita” who was resisting the planned destruction of a vital forest to make way for a police-training facility.

In Europe, German authorities used anti-organised crime laws to target the Last Generation direct action movement, including surveilling communications, raiding homes, seizing laptops and freezing bank accounts. Police also violently evicted protesters against a coalmine expansion.

In the Netherlands, police fired water cannon and detained around 2,400 people during a protest against fossil fuel subsidies. Italian activists complained about increasing pressure from the new far-right government, which introduced legislation targeting civil disobedience climate protests.

Meanwhile, UK police used new laws restricting protest rights to jail demonstrators demanding an end to fossil fuel use. Numerous Australian states also passed anti-protest laws to target and jail peaceful climate activists.

“The crackdown on climate movements in industrialised countries must stop,” said Firmin. “It is a dangerous obstacle to addressing the climate crisis. It also threatens long-cherished rights of expression, assembly and association.”

Despite the repression, climate activists scored numerous wins in 2023 thanks to persistent and creative action from blocking roads to disrupting high-profile events. At COP28, intense civil society pressure throughout the year resulted in states acknowledging the need to cut fossil fuel emissions.

Legal action also emerged in 2023 as a successful front for climate action, with court victories in Belgium, Germany, and the US state of Montana, where young activists won a suit alleging government support of fossil fuels violated their right to a healthy environment. 

“Repression is intensifying, but civil society isn't giving up, and without it, the climate situation would be a lot worse,” said Firmin. “Activists must keep growing their movements and pushing leaders to act now given the scale of the climate crisis.”

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