Statement at the 56th Session of the UN Human Rights Council
Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association
Delivered by Sigrid Lipott, CIVICUS
Thank you Mr President.
CIVICUS and its members welcome the appointment of the new Special Rapporteur and reaffirm our full support to the mandate.
According to our latest reports, global civic space conditions are increasingly challenging, with a discernible rise in the closure of civic space over the last 5 years and only 2% of world’s population living in countries where the rights to peaceful assembly and association are not significantly constrained. We remain particularly concerned about the increase in restrictive laws and policies that criminalise civil society under the guise of national security, public order, and counter-terrorism, and often also serve to deter or hinder cooperation with the United Nations.
Likewise, restrictive laws on associations that regulate civil society activity and restrictions to access to foreign funding and cooperation, including in crisis and conflict-affected situations, are worrying trends. Deepening crises worldwide create the potential for an increase in spontaneous protests. Global documented trends include the increasing and combined use by both state and non-state actors of arbitrary arrest and detention of peaceful protesters and excessive use of force as prominent tactics to disperse and punish protesters.
These global trends, compounded by endemic impunity for grave violations associated with the exercise of the rights to FoAA, growing prosecution of human rights defenders, and the severe impact on the enjoyment of FoAA rights by excluded groups and grassroots movements, seriously impede the protection of human rights.
Through advocacy and campaigning, monitoring, litigation and support provided by the Special Rapporteur CSOs have played a significant a role in the mitigation of risks associated with these restrictions and we invite the Special Rapporteur to continue working closely with civil society to address those across silos. We urge Member States to fully cooperate with the mandate to address key global trends and enhance the facilitation and protection of the rights to FoAA. We also call on this Council to draw attention to the increasing restrictions to these rights as first warning signs on which the Council should act to avert further human rights violations and crisis escalation.
We thank you.
