- As we mark Nelson Mandela Day and #StandAsMyWitness campaign anniversary, number of countries to legally harass and put activists behind bars nearly doubled in five years.
- José Rubén Zamora is the latest defender featured in the international #StandAsMyWitness campaign calling for the release of 14 leading human rights defenders.
- Earlier this week, two featured Eswatini activists, Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube, were brutally sentenced to long prison terms for pushing democratic reforms.
As we mark Nelson Mandela Day on 18 July and #StandAsMyWitness campaign anniversary, the number of countries abusing laws to harass and put activists behind bars has nearly doubled in five years. At least 66 countries prosecuted activists last year, up from 36 in 2019, according to the CIVICUS Monitor. In 2023, at least 63 countries detained human rights defenders (HRDs), up from 38 five years ago.
The jarring growth of repression comes as a stark contrast to the vision of President Mandela. #StandAsMyWitness, launched on Nelson Mandela Day four years ago, calls for the release of leading global human rights defenders who languish behind bars for speaking truth to power.
Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora is now added as the 14th activist in the campaign. “As we add José Rubén Zamora to the #StandAsMyWitness campaign, we grow ever concerned that the world is becoming a more dangerous place for human rights defenders. He is a courageous journalist who has dedicated his life to exposing corruption and defending human rights in Guatemala,” said Isabel Rosales, Latin America advocacy officer at CIVICUS. Zamora has been languishing behind bars for two years and the newspaper he founded, el Periódico, was shut down.
Earlier this week, two #StandAsMyWitness Eswatini activists Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube were respectively sentenced to 25 and 18 years in jail. The two pro-democracy parliamentarians were convicted for demanding democratic reforms. Eswatini is an absolute monarchy where political parties are banned from elections and activists face jail, torture, and death for demanding their rights.
The 14 human rights defenders featured in the campaign represent a wave of persecution sweeping against civic freedoms and human rights around the world. Abuse of law for the prosecution of activists is ranked among the top ten rights violations according to CIVICUS Monitor.
Their stories are no different from many other activists who were silenced for standing up for human rights and justice. Among others still languishing behind bars are #StandAsMyWitness icons:
- Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, who has received a total of 31 years of prison sentence for standing up for women’s empowerment and promoting the abolition of the death penalty in Iran.
- Hong Kong Pro-democracy activist Chow Hang-Tung, who was arrested and detained on June 4, 2021, for publishing two social media posts calling on the public to join the peaceful vigil for the 1989 Tiananmen massacre of civilians and protesters in Beijing.
- Khurram Parvez, voted one of the 100 most influential people by Time magazine in 2022, has dedicated his life to nonviolence in one of the most militarized regions in the world. He remains in jail under charges of terrorism and conspiracy in India.
This clampdown on defenders paints a bleak picture, with only two percent of the global population living in countries with open civic spaces. A staggering 72% of people in the world lived in authoritarian regimes in 2023. CIVICUS finds a discernible rise in the closure of civic spaces around the world, with the highest number of people living in closed countries since 2019.
As the world honors President Mandela who spent 27 years in jail, thousands of human rights defenders are in prison convicted in unfair trials and on trumped-up charges.
#StandAsMyWitness urges people to call for an end to the imprisonment and harassment of human rights defenders worldwide. To date, it has helped the release of 30 defenders. It invites people around the world to share the activists' stories and demand their release.
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Notes to the Editor:
About CIVICUS
CIVICUS is a global alliance of civil society organisations dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society around the world. CIVICUS has 17,000 members worldwide. For more information on the defenders featured in the campaign, please visit https://web.civicus.org/StandAsMyWitness.
Interviews
For interviews with CIVICUS, please contact:
Full list of HRDs featured in the #StandAsMyWitness campaign:
AFRICA:
- Eswatini: Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube - MPs who campaigned for democratic reform
- Burundi: Floriane Irangabiye – a journalist serving a 10-year prison sentence for her work
ASIA:
- Hong Kong: Chow Hang-Tung - pro-democracy activist, sentenced for organising unauthorised Tiananmen Square Massacre commemoration vigil
- India: Khurram Parvez - Kashmiri rights activist; listed in Time magazine’s 100 ‘Most Influential People 2022
CENTRAL ASIA:
- Belarus: Viasna Human Rights Defenders - members of Viasna human rights centre; jailed for exercising their right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression
- Tajikistan: Buzurgmehr Yorov - human rights lawyer representing members of the opposition; recipient of Homo Homini human rights prize
- Tajikistan: Manuchehr Kholiqnazarov - human rights lawyer serving a 16-year-long prison sentence in retaliation for his human rights work.
LATIN AMERICA:
- Mexico: Kenia Hernandez - Indigenous and women’s rights activist; arrested after protest
- Guatemala - José Rubén Zamora a journalist and founder of the newspaper elPeriodico. He has been detained since 29 July 2022.
MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA:
- Algeria: Kamira Nait Sid - Indigenous and women’s rights activist campaigning for the rights of the Amazigh people in Algeria
- Bahrain: Abdul-Hadi al-Khawaja - detained after democracy protests in 2011; recipient of the prestigious Martin Ennals Award 2022 for human rights defenders
- Egypt: Hoda Abdel Moneim - human rights lawyer and former member of Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights
- Iran: Narges Mohammadi - Journalist and human rights activist who received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2023
- United Arab Emirates: Ahmed Mansoor - on the advisory boards for Human Rights Watch and the Gulf Centre for Human Rights; imprisoned for publishing information on social media
To find out how to get involved, check out CIVICUS’s campaign webpage: Stand As My Witness.
We partner with various regional and global organisations, such as Global Citizen, to call for the release of human rights defenders.
People are encouraged to share the defenders’ individual stories on social media using the hashtag #StandAsMyWitness.