Thank you Mr. President,
I warmly welcome this important opportunity to address the Council on shrinking space for civil society. My organization has worked for nearly two decades to strengthen citizen action and civil society throughout the world. However, despite the growing recognition of the importance of a vibrant, independent civil society sector, civil society activists and organisations are becoming the target of a concerted global campaign to restrict civic space. Those of us who monitor conditions for civil society show that, in 2015 alone, fundamental freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly were significantly violated in over 100 countries.
This is not only true under authoritarian or semi-authoritarian regimes but also under democratic governments. We remain concerned about the regression in democratic rights in Europe as well as the dilution of gains made with regard to human rights in other continents. The international community has a sacred responsibility to protect the defenders of the rights of others.
Even after ten years of the Human Rights Council’s existence, six out of seven people live in countries where citizens, activists and organisations face substantial challenges in exercising their fundamental freedoms through repressive legislation, illicit surveillance, and deadly forms of harassment and threats designed to silence the voices of dissent, curb checks on political power and protect special interests.
Worryingly, persecution of human rights defenders and journalists appears to have increased. Frontline Defenders reports that 156 human rights defenders were killed or died in detention in the first 11 months of 2015, a significant increase from the 130 reported killed in 2014. Security forces and criminal elements linked to unscrupulous commercial enterprises remain implicated in several of the killings. Religious and ideological fundamentalist groups are also involved in seeking to upend the collective progress achieved by civil society in advancing human rights and social justice norms.
Proposed and existing restrictions on international funding for civil society organisations to carry out their legitimate activities are a matter of deep concern as is legislation that uses derogatory terms such as foreign agents to describe civil society organisations. In several instances, legislation is being invoked ostensibly to curb terrorism and maintain state security, in reality limiting democratic freedoms.
In far too many countries, law enforcement agencies continue to overstep their powers by using excessive force against peaceful protestors.
Mr. President
The Council has an important role to play in challenging impunity which is the chief cause of continuing and rising attacks on peaceful civil society activists. As this body celebrates its 10th anniversary, we urge the Council to seek practical measures to address the crisis of impunity for civil society rights abuses.
We thus call upon the Council to:
Support the development of a comprehensive database of human rights defenders wrongfully imprisoned for their work and beliefs in line with the June 2015 joint statement issued by 58 co-sponsoring governments calling on the OHCHR “to establish and maintain a publicly accessible and regularly updated database of human rights defenders in detention and others detained for exercising their freedom of expression.”
Support the development of common substantive interpretations on civil society rights building on the resolutions on protecting and promoting civil society space, protection of human rights defenders, and the protection of human rights in the context of peaceful protests.
Continue to underscore country level restrictions on civil society space during relevant UN Human Rights Council dialogues by encouraging member states to increase and augment their attention to restrictions taking place on the ground.
Encourage all UN agencies to develop meaningful partnerships with civil society including through national and regional focal points and by opening permanent lines of communication with civil society organisations on the ground.
Continue to condemn in the strongest terms reprisals against human rights defenders for cooperating with UN mechanisms and engage relevant governments with regard to individual cases.
Thank you Mr. President