Interviews

TURKEY: ‘If civil society doesn’t speak now, we risk having nothing left to defend in just a couple of years’

Interviews 25 April 2025

CIVICUS discusses Turkey’s ongoing protests with Rümeysa Çamdereli, Research Director of the YADA foundation, a civil society organisation (CSO) that works to strengthen civil society’s impact.

Featured

PAKISTAN: ‘Protecting Afghan refugees is not merely a humanitarian gesture – it is a legal obligation’

Interviews 24 April 2025

CIVICUS speaks with human rights lawyer Moniza Kakar about Pakistan’s controversial campaign to expel Afghan refugees.

Featured

ECUADOR: ‘Noboa did not receive a blank cheque: he will have to show tangible results’

Interviews 23 April 2025

CIVICUS discusses Ecuador’s presidential election with Jorge Tapia de los Reyes, Coordinator of the Democracy and Politics Department and the Political Funding Observatory of the Citizenship and Development Foundation (FCD).

Featured

SOUTH SUDAN: ‘The risk of a return to full-scale war is very high – it’s only a matter of time’

Interviews 22 April 2025

CIVICUS speaks about an escalating crisis in South Sudan with Edmund Yakani, Executive Director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO) South Sudan.

Featured

SOUTH AFRICA: ‘The recent attacks on activists echo apartheid-era repression, although this is supposedly a democracy’

Interviews 21 April 2025

CIVICUS discusses the dangers facing civil society activists and whistleblowers in South Africa with Corlett Letlojane.

Featured

UKRAINE: ‘The international response should follow the principle of ‘nothing about us, without us’’

Interviews 17 April 2025

CIVICUS speaks with Ukrainian gender rights activist Maryna Rudenko about the gendered impacts of the war in Ukraine and the importance of including women in peacebuilding efforts.

Featured

FRANCE: ‘As civil society, we must mobilise our forces to defend the democratic principles of our country’

Interviews 17 April 2025

CIVICUS discusses recent changes in the French political landscape with Valentin Stel, Co-Director of SOS Racisme, a civil society organisation that has been working for 40 years to improve public policy and tackle racism, antisemitism and racial discrimination in France.

Featured

NORTH MACEDONIA: ‘Protesters are calling for immediate justice and long-term reforms’

Interviews 15 April 2025

CIVICUS discusses recent protests in North Macedonia with Borjan Eftimov, a student activist from the local group YOUth Choose.

Featured

BOTSWANA: ‘Political leadership may have changed, but the state still controls the narrative and excludes civil society’

Interviews 11 April 2025

CIVICUS discusses Botswana’s new government with Dumiso Gatsha, director of Success Capital, a local youth-led LGBTQI+ organisation.

Featured

USA: ‘Rebuilding trust in democracy requires reclaiming power from the few to ensure it delivers for all’

Interviews 10 April 2025

CIVICUS discusses global democratic decline with Soheïla Comninos, consultant at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University and lead author alongside Scott Warren, Fellow at the Institute, of its new report, Global Democracy Theory of Change.

Featured

MEXICO: ‘The discovery of the torture centre exposed the state’s complicity with organised crime’

Interviews 09 April 2025

CIVICUS discusses enforced disappearances in Mexico with Anna Karolina Chimiak, co-director of the Justice Centre for Peace and Development (CEPAD).

Featured

TURKEY: ‘This new law will push LGBTQI+ people and communities into deeper invisibility and precarity’

Interviews 04 April 2025

CIVICUS discusses Turkey’s proposed law targeting LGBTQI+ rights with an activist from Women for Women’s Human Rights Association, a civil society organisation fighting for equality and non-discrimination in Turkey.

Featured

PHILIPPINES: ‘Duterte’s arrest reinforces the principle that leaders are not above international law’

Interviews 03 April 2025

CIVICUS discusses the arrest of former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte with Maria Sol Taule, deputy secretary general of the human rights organisation Karapatan.

Featured

GLOBAL: ‘Energy Transfer’s lawsuit against Greenpeace is an attempt to drain our resources and silence dissent’

Interviews 01 April 2025

CIVICUS speaks with Daniel Simons, Senior Legal Counsel Strategic Defence for Greenpeace International, about the lawsuit brought by an oil and gas company against Greenpeace and its broader implications for civil society.

Featured

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: The new foreign agents’ law isn’t about transparency – it’s about silencing dissent’

Interviews 24 March 2025

CIVICUS discusses the foreign agents’ law recently adopted in Republika Srpska, one of the two main political entities that make up Bosnia and Herzegovina, with Damjan Ožegović, Senior Researcher and Legal Affairs Associate at Transparency International (TI) Bosnia.

Featured

SERBIA: ‘Student protests have sparked solidarity, empathy and a renewed belief in collective action’

Interviews 21 March 2025

CIVICUS discusses recent protests in Serbia with Alma Mustajbašić, researcher at Civic Initiatives, a Serbian civil society organisation that advocates for democracy, human rights and citizen engagement.

Featured

GLOBAL: ‘Civil society is pushing for transparent, rights-centred AI governance’

Interviews 18 March 2025

CIVICUS discusses military applications of AI and the urgent need for regulation with Franco Giandana Gigena, Policy Analyst at Access Now, a digital rights organisation that advocates for human rights in the technological age.

Featured

KOSOVO: ‘Civil society works day in and day out to build democracy’

Interviews 11 March 2025

CIVICUS discusses challenges following Kosovo’s election with Taulant Hoxha, Executive Director of the Kosovar Civil Society Foundation (KCSF), an independent civil society organisation (CSO) that supports local groups to develop a more participatory and democratic society.

Featured

AMERICAS: ‘The exclusion of women limits the options and talent available to lead the OAS’

Interviews 10 March 2025

CIVICUS discusses the election of the next Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General with Viviana Krsticevic, Executive Director of the Centre for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), a civil society organisation that works to ensure the full enjoyment of human rights in the Americas through the use of the inter-American system and other international mechanisms.

Featured

DRC: ‘If the root causes of the conflict are not addressed, the cycle of violence is likely to persist’

Interviews 06 March 2025

CIVICUS discusses recent developments in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with Reagan Miviri, researcher and analyst at Ebuteli (‘staircase’), a Congolese research institute focused on issues of politics, governance and conflict.

Featured

NAMIBIA: ‘Legal rights must translate into real protections, and the fight for marriage equality must continue’

Interviews 02 March 2025

CIVICUS discusses LGBTQI+ rights struggles and the backlash in Namibia with Miguel Gomes Antonio, Executive Director of the Southern African Christian Initiative (SACHI), a regional civil society organisation (CSO) that advocates for social and political development, democracy and good governance, social and economic justice and peace, religious tolerance and interfaith dialogue.

Featured

GUYANA: ‘Journalists often avoid critical reporting to protect themselves from harassment’

Interviews 01 March 2025

Tensions between Guyana and Venezuela have escalated following an alleged attack on Guyanese soldiers near the Cuyuni River.

Featured

NEPAL: ‘The Social Network Bill is part of a broader strategy to tighten control over digital communication’

Interviews 28 February 2025

CIVICUS discusses Nepal’s Social Network Bill with Dikshya Khadgi, a Nepali feminist digital rights lawyer and activist and a member of AALAWYA, a feminist advocacy and movement lawyering collective rooted in the values of justice, equality, radical care and cross-movement building.

Featured

ARGENTINA: ‘Society must prepare to act collectively to defend rights and democracy’

Interviews 27 February 2025

CIVICUS discusses attacks on women’s and LGBTQI+ people’s rights with Natalia Gherardi, Executive Director of the Latin American Team on Justice and Gender (ELA), an Argentinean civil society organisation that works at the regional level.

Featured

KENYA: ‘The Family Protection Bill threatens to escalate violence against LGBTQI+ people’

Interviews 26 February 2025

CIVICUS discusses Kenya’s proposed Family Protection Bill with Arsenekah Ezekiel, executive director of World Post Changers Network, a Kenyan civil society organisation (CSO) that advocates for LGBTQI+ rights.

Featured

UKRAINE: ‘Civil society remains resilient and responsive, but financial constraints now hamper its efforts’

Interviews 25 February 2025

After three years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, CIVICUS discusses the civil society response with Mykhailo Savva, member of the Expert Council of Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, a civil society organisation (CSO) dedicated to the protection and promotion of human rights.

Featured

NICARAGUA: ‘The regime counts on the disappearance of civil society, but people will always look for ways to organise themselves’

Interviews 24 February 2025

CIVICUS discusses civil society in Nicaragua with Amaru Ruiz, a Nicaraguan activist, president of Fundación del Río and president of the board of the Central American Association for Development and Democracy (ACDD).

Featured

CAR: ‘Civil society must be at the heart of any human rights protection system’

Interviews 22 February 2025

CIVICUS discusses the current crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR) with an activist and human rights defender who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.

Featured

GAZA: ‘True peace requires an inclusive approach, where everyone involved has a voice’

Interviews 21 February 2025

CIVICUS discusses the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas with Yossi Mekelberg, Professor of International Relations and Senior Consulting Fellow at Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

Featured

MYANMAR: ‘The junta’s sham election cannot pave the way for real political change and should not be legitimised’

Interviews 20 February 2025

CIVICUS discusses Myanmar’s upcoming election with Nyein, a human rights advocate and researcher with the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (ALTSEAN-Burma).

Featured

GREENLAND: ‘Greenland’s people have the right to decide the nature of their relations with other countries’

Interviews 18 February 2025

CIVICUS discusses the USA’s ambitions towards Greenland with Rachael Lorna Johnstone, Professor of Law at the University of Akureyri in Iceland and the University of Greenland, and Fulbright Arctic IV Scholar.

Featured

INDIA: ‘The new criminal laws mark a shift from a ‘rule of law’ to a ‘rule by law’ model that prioritises state control’

Interviews 17 February 2025

CIVICUS discusses India’s new criminal laws with Aditya Shrivastava, a human rights lawyer, civil society activist and researcher with the Contested Democracy Platform at Södertörn University in Sweden.

Featured

BELARUS: ‘The work of human rights defenders in exile is crucial in keeping the democratic movement alive’

Interviews 15 February 2025

CIVICUS speaks with Natallia Satsunkevich, human rights defender and interim board member of the Viasna Human Rights Centre, about the state of civil society in Belarus, the impact of repression on opposition movements and the role of the international community in supporting democracy.

Featured

CARIBBEAN: ‘We need to accept people with disabilities and include them in our communities’

Interviews 13 February 2025

CIVICUS speaks with Andrew Sharpe, president of the Authentic Caribbean Foundation (ACF) and the newly formed Caribbean Disability Network, about civil society work for disability rights in the Caribbean.

Featured

GERMANY: ‘A key element of resistance to the far right is the firewall – which a major party has just breached’

Interviews 12 February 2025

CIVICUS discusses the growth of the right-wing extremist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party with Cynthia Freund-Möller and Matthias Meyer, project lead and research associate at the Right-Wing Studies Knowledge Network (Wi-REX).

Featured

AUSTRALIA: ‘Attacks on the right to protest are escalating’

Interviews 11 February 2025

Brenna McNeil is coordinator of Melbourne Activist Legal Support (MALS), an all-volunteer organisation that provides training for protest movements, offers information and resources on the right to protest and trains and fields legal observer teams that monitor and report on the policing of protests in Australia’s Victoria state.

Featured

ZIMBABWE: ‘Democratic rules shouldn’t be changed just because they are inconvenient to those in power’

Interviews 10 February 2025

CIVICUS speaks with civic educator and activist Munashe Masiyiwa about a recent proposal to extend presidential terms in Zimbabwe.

Featured

ECUADOR: ‘This election campaign offers two opposing visions of how to tackle insecurity’

Interviews 07 February 2025

CIVICUS discusses Ecuador’s upcoming elections with Jorge Tapia de los Reyes, Coordinator of the Democracy and Politics Department and Funding Observatory of the Citizenship and Development Foundation (CDF).

Featured

GUINEA-BISSAU: ‘Protests showed the power of popular mobilisation in forcing the government to respond’

Interviews 06 February 2025

Read in Portuguese CIVICUS speaks about the challenges of democracy in Guinea-Bissau with Malam Sanha, human rights activist and secretary general of the Forum for Social Participation of Young Girls (FINSJOR).

Featured

THAILAND: ‘Thailand’s treatment of Uyghur refugees violates international standards’

Interviews 05 February 2025

CIVICUS speaks to Rushan Abbas, activist, human rights defender and executive director of Campaign for Uyghurs, a US-based civil society organisation that advocates for the rights and freedoms of Uyghur people in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, also known as East Turkistan, and around the world.

Featured

DRC: ‘Rwandan support for the M23 threatens to turn the conflict into a regional crisis’

Interviews 04 February 2025

Steward Muhindo is an activist with LUCHA (Lutte pour le changement), a non-violent, non-partisan civic movement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Featured

INDONESIA: ‘The transmigration plan threatens Papua’s autonomy and Indigenous ways of life’

Interviews 03 February 2025

CIVICUS speaks to Budi Hernawan, human rights defender and senior lecturer at Driyarkara School of Philosophy in Jakarta.

Featured

ETHIOPIA: ‘Reconciliation will require robust transitional justice and accountability mechanisms’

Interviews 29 January 2025

CIVICUS discusses the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia’s Amhara region with Hone Mandefro, advocacy director at the Amhara Association of America, and Henok Ashagray, PhD candidate and project officer at the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria.

Featured

‘Areas essential to the global climate are being threatened by economic projects’

Interviews 27 January 2025

CIVICUS discusses activism against oil auctions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with François Kamate, founder and coordinator of the young environmental volunteer movement Extinction Rebellion Rutshuru.

Featured

VENEZUELA: ‘Each failed attempt at democratic transition reinforces the power of the authoritarian government’

Interviews 25 January 2025

CIVICUS discusses the expectations of Venezuelan civil society following Nicolás Maduro’s inauguration with Carlos Torrealba, a Venezuelan academic and researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Featured

ARGENTINA: ‘The closure of Meta’s US fact-checking programme is a major setback in the fight against disinformation’

Interviews 24 January 2025

CIVICUS speaks with Olivia Sohr about the challenges of disinformation and the consequences of the closure of Meta’s fact-checking programme in the USA.