Interviews

Featured

PHILIPPINES: ‘If we don’t fight against the system, people will continue to die’

Interviews
Following a year marked by massive mobilisation on the climate emergency, CIVICUS is interviewing civil society activists, leaders and experts about the main environmental challenges they face in their contexts and the actions they are taking.
Featured

LEBANON: ‘Increased popular awareness is irreversible, it will remain despite any setbacks’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks with Ziad Abdel Samad, Executive Director of the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND), and Zahra Bazzi, ANND Programmes Manager, about the protests that began in Lebanon in October 2019, the changes achieved and the challenges encountered.
Featured

#UN75: ‘The UN cannot afford to miss opportunities for civil society engagement’

Interviews
2020 marks 75 years since the founding of the United Nations (UN).
Featured

SDGs: ‘Gaps in data coverage are most likely to exclude the poorest people’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks to Dr Claire Melamed, CEO of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, an open, independent, multi-stakeholder network aimed at harnessing the data revolution for sustainable development.
Featured

LGBTQI+ RIGHTS IN UGANDA: ‘Intolerance is fuelled by anti-rights groups and leaders’

Interviews
Following our 2019 special report on anti-rights groups and civil society responses, we are interviewing civil society activists and leaders about their experiences of backlash from anti-rights groups and their strategies to strengthen progressive narratives and civil society responses.
Featured

DIGITAL DIVIDE: ‘The uncritical adoption of technology is particularly risky in humanitarian crises’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks to Barnaby Willitts-King, Senior Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI).
Featured

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: ‘If we allow seabed mining everyone is at risk’

Interviews
Following a year marked by massive mobilisation around the climate emergency, CIVICUS is interviewing civil society activists, leaders and experts about the main environmental challenges they face and the actions they are taking.
Featured

CHINA: ‘Its international role both originates in and enables domestic political control’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks about China’s growing international role with Sharon Hom, Executive Director of Human Rights in China (HRIC), Adjunct Professor of Law at the New York University School of Law and Professor of Law Emerita at the City University of New York School of Law.
Featured

#UN75: ‘Commitments to the Women, Peace and Security agenda are going unfulfilled’

Interviews
2020 marks 75 years since the founding of the United Nations (UN).
Featured

HONG KONG: ‘This is a leader-full movement, ran by countless small networks of talented people’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks about the protests that have rocked Hong Kong since June 2019 with Johnson Ching-Yin Yeung, democracy movement organiser and chairperson of the Hong Kong Civil Hub.
Featured

ANTI-RIGHTS GROUPS: ‘Protesting once is not enough; we need to fight back every single day’

Interviews
Following our 2019 special report on anti-rights groups and civil society responses, we are interviewing civil society activists and leaders about their experiences of backlash from anti-rights groups and their strategies to strengthen progressive narratives and civil society responses.
Featured

#UN75: ‘It is time for the UN to be bold again!’

Interviews
2020 marks 75 years since the founding of the United Nations (UN).
Featured

#UN75: ‘The Human Rights Council has made a positive difference in addressing human rights violations’

Interviews
2020 marks 75 years since the founding of the United Nations (UN).
Featured

#UN75: ‘Governments use the UN to sanitise their image before the international community’

Interviews
2020 marks 75 years since the founding of the United Nations (UN).
Featured

PAKISTAN: ‘I was told the people who detained me were from the Army Intelligence Agency’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks with Mohammed Ismail, a longstanding member of CIVICUS’ Affinity Group of National Associations (AGNA), a network of 90 national and regional civil society platforms from around the world.
Featured

#UN75: ‘Human rights are at the centre of multilateral diplomacy’

Interviews
  2020 marks 75 years since the founding of the United Nations (UN).
Featured

‘Due to the communications blockade in Kashmir, news of protests went largely underreported’

Interviews
On 5 August 2019, the government of India revoked Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution, which guaranteed the autonomous status and rights of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Featured

#ShiftThePower, exciting possibilities and challenges for resourcing

Interviews
Left to Right: Dumiso Gatsha, SDGs Goalkeeper and founder of Success Capital NGO & Degan Ali, Executive Director at Adeso  A growing movement of people is challenging the traditional top-down paradigm, ways of working and decision-making within international development aid and philanthropy.

BANGLADESH: ‘Out of fear, people are being silent’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks with Aklima Ferdows, who works with the Centre for Social Activism in Bangladesh, about civil society’s challenges and support needs in the face of a sustained government crackdown.
Featured

MALAYSIA: ‘We need global solidarity to push back on attacks on rights’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists and leaders about their experiences of backlash from anti-rights groups and their strategies to strengthen progressive narratives and civil society responses.
Featured

Letter from Jail: Members of poetry troupe in Myanmar

Interviews
Letter from Zeyar Lwin and Paing Ye Thu members of the Peacock Generation in Myanmar Seven members of the Peacock Generation—Kay Khine Tun, Zayar Lwin, Paing Pyo Min, Paing Ye Thu, Zaw Lin Htut, Su Yadanar Myint and Nyein Chan Soe —were arrested in April and May 2019 after they performed Thangyat, a traditional performance art akin to slam poetry during the Thingyan Water Festival in April.
Featured

TAIWAN: Same-sex marriage legalisation a joint effort of government and civil society

Interviews
In May 2019 Taiwan became the first nation in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage.
Featured

CHILD RIGHTS: ‘Anti-child rights groups are making up stories to convince the public’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists, leaders and experts about their experience of facing backlash by anti-rights groups and how they are responding.
Featured

SRI LANKA: ‘Trolls accusing people of being traitors are organised and political’

Interviews
Ahead of the Sri Lankan presidential elections on 16 November 2019, CIVICUS spoke with Sandya Ekneligoda, a human rights defender and campaigner for justice for families of people who have been disappeared.
Featured

CLIMATE CHANGE: Feminists have pushed for marginalised voices to be heard

Interviews
As calls grow for climate action to be more responsive to frontline communities, CIVICUS spoke to Maria Nailevu, a feminist climate activist from Fiji, about how feminists have been fighting for more inclusive climate policies from the local to the global levels.
Featured

SUDAN: Young activists show climate solidarity through drought, floods and tears

Interviews
بالعربية CIVICUS speaks to Nisreen Al Sayeem, Chair of the Sudan Youth Organization on Climate Change and Coordinator of Youth and Environment - Sudan (YES).
Featured

Zombies in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Satirical protest & mobilisation against Apartheid-era policies in Cape Town

Interviews
On 30 September 2019 an unusual scene flooded Cape Town as ‘zombie’ protesters fled through the inner city in a satirical protest against the re-emergence of Apartheid-era policies in post-Apartheid South Africa.
Featured

CONSPIRACY THEORIES: ‘When social trust has been eroded, people don’t know what to believe’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists, leaders and experts about their experience of facing backlash by anti-rights groups and how they are responding.
Featured

ETHIOPIA: ‘Civil society can play a key role in overcoming divisions’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks to Yared Hailemariam, Executive Director of the Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia, about recent political reforms in Ethiopia, the opening opportunities for civil society and the prospects for further change.
Featured

UNITED NATIONS: ‘Civil society has proved itself to be an indispensable ally’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks to Ben Donaldson, Head of Campaigns at the United Nations Association – UK (UNA-UK).
Featured

HUMAN RIGHTS: ‘People have a great desire for positive stories’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks with Saleem Vaillancourt, a journalist and media producer who works to promote the rights of Iran’s Bahá’í community and to encourage positive action to realise human rights.
Featured

INDONESIA: ‘We often face threats for reporting on abuses in Papua’

Interviews
Since August 2019, there have been mass protests in Papua and West Papua, Indonesia.
Featured

HATE SPEECH: ‘The fact that this is how online platforms are supposed to work is a big part of the problem’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists, leaders and experts about their experience of facing backlash by anti-rights groups.
Featured

MYANMAR: ‘The government needs to open the doors’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks with Nay Lin Tun, a doctor and civil society humanitarian worker in Myanmar, about conflict in Rakhine State, the difficulties faced by minorities in the region, and civil society’s work to provide help.
Featured

VIETNAM: ‘The government is using non-state actors against minority religions’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks with Thang Nguyen of Boat People SOS (BPSOS), a civil society organisation based in the USA and Thailand, about the challenges for civil society and religious minorities in Vietnam, and about their work to enable civil society responses.
Featured

ANTI-RIGHTS GROUPS: ‘They want to stop us because we do make a difference’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists, leaders and experts about their experiences of facing backlash by anti-rights groups.
Featured

THAILAND: ‘Nobody should go to jail simply for expressing their opinions’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks with Sutharee Wannasiri, a human rights activist in Thailand who has been facing criminal prosecution and a civil lawsuit as a result of reporting on abuses of migrant worker rights by a Thai poultry company while working as a researcher with Fortify Rights, a human rights organisation.
Featured

ARTISTIC FREEDOM: ‘Artists are targeted because art is a powerful messaging vehicle’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks about the state of artistic expression with Srirak Plipat, Executive Director of Freemuse, the main international civil society organisation advocating for and defending the freedom of expression of artists.
Featured

REFUGEE RIGHTS: ‘It’s about finding ways to make refugee voices stronger’

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks to Evan Jones of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN) about the challenges that refugees face in Asia and civil society’s work to help realise refugee rights.
Featured

BOTSWANA: ‘Anti-rights groups are emerging in reaction to progressive gains’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists and leaders about their experiences of backlash from anti-rights groups and their strategies to strengthen progressive narratives and civil society responses.
Featured

HIV/AIDS: ‘We need a global civil society movement that stands together for all rights’

Interviews
  CIVICUS speaks to Alessandra Nilo, co-founder and Executive Director of GESTOS – HIV and AIDS, Communication and Gender, a civil society organisation (CSO) created in 1993 in Recife, Brazil.
Featured

REFUGEE RIGHTS: ‘My status doesn't represent me’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists and leaders about their human rights work, their experiences of backlash from anti-rights groups and their strategies to strengthen progressive narratives and civil society responses.
Featured

LGBTQI RIGHTS: ‘There is an ongoing desire among many to more closely regulate morality’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists, leaders and experts about their experiences of backlash from anti-rights groups and their strategies to strengthen progressive narratives and civil society responses.
Featured

SRI LANKA: ‘People are scared of expressing themselves freely’

Interviews
In April 2019, more than 250 people were killed and hundreds injured in a terror attack in Sri Lanka that targeted three churches and three hotels.
Featured

ONLINE CIVIC SPACE: ‘We shouldn’t expect tech giants to solve the problems that they have created’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists and leaders about their experiences of backlash from anti-rights groups and their strategies to strengthen progressive narratives and civil society responses.
Featured

HONG KONG: ‘We may have not achieved our demands yet, but we've built solidarity’

Interviews
Millions of people took to the streets of Hong Kong in June 2019 to protest against a proposed Extradition Bill that would have allowed the government to send people, including foreigners, to face trial in mainland China, in courts controlled by the Communist Party.
Featured

‘In response to anti-right narratives, we need to support one another in all of our diversity’

Interviews
As part of our 2019 thematic report, we are interviewing civil society activists and leaders about their experiences of backlash from anti-rights groups and their strategies to strengthen progressive narratives and civil society responses.
Featured

'Global policy-making can greatly benefit from the expertise of regular citizens'

Interviews
CIVICUS speaks to Antoine Vergne, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Missions Publiques, an impact-driven organisation that seeks to improve policy-making at the local, national and global levels by bringing the voices of citizens into policy discussion and negotiations.
Featured

CHINA: ’30 years after Tiananmen, the world witnesses the consequences of nurturing China’

Interviews
4 June 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown in China when hundreds, if not thousands, of unarmed peaceful pro-democracy protesters were killed in Beijing and tens of thousands of demonstrators in cities across China were arrested.
Featured

THE GAMBIA: ‘I use my art to effect change, and that is why I am being targeted’

Interviews
On his way to participate in International Civil Society Week (ICSW) in Belgrade, Serbia, the Gambian rapper and activist Killa Ace was detained at the Gambia-Senegal border on flimsy excuses, causing him to miss his flight and making him unable to attend the gathering.

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