CIVICUS speaks with Peter Lewis, president of Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR), about the recent defeat in a referendum of a proposal to recognise Indigenous Australians in the constitution and create a permanent institution so they can speak directly to government and parliament on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Interviews
CIVICUS speaks about the role of civil society in the response to the recent earthquake in Morocco with Victoria Vrana, Chief Executive Officer at GlobalGiving.
CIVICUS speaks about the struggle for LGBTQI+ rights in Japan with Akira Nishiyama, Deputy Secretary General of the Japan Alliance for Legislation to Remove Social Barriers based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (Japan Alliance for LGBT Legislation, J-ALL).
CIVICUS speaks about the human rights situation and the closure of the United Nations (UN) office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Uganda with Dr Livingstone Sewanyana, founder and Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) and UN independent expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order.
CIVICUS speaks with Céline Danhier, director of O’YES, about the recent conservative backlash to the implementation of a sex and relationships education programme in state schools in Belgium’s Walloon region.
CIVICUS speaks with Jerusalem Girmay, Chief Communications Officer of Omna Tigray, about the state of emergency imposed in Ethiopia and its implications for the Tigray region.
CIVICUS speaks about the activism of North Korean escapees with Greg Scarlatoiu, Executive Director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK).
CIVICUS speaks about Syria’s ongoing civil war and human rights crisis and its prospects for democratic change with Fadel Abdul Ghany, founder and Executive Director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR).
CIVICUS speaks with about civil society work in Eritrea’s context of closed civic space with Helen Kidan, chairperson of the Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights (EMDHR).
CIVICUS speaks about the recent Supreme Court ruling decriminalising abortion in Mexico with Brenda Rodriguez, communications coordinator of Information Group on Reproductive Choice (GIRE, Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida).
CIVICUS speaks about recent arrests of leading environmental activists in Vietnam with Penelope Faulkner, President of Quê Me: Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR).
CIVICUS speaks about the closure of the United Nations (UN) office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Uganda with Robert Kirenga, Executive Director of the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders-Uganda (NCHRD-U).
THE NETHERLANDS: ‘Restrictions on the right to protest should be the exception rather than the rule’
CIVICUS speaks with Sieger Sloot, an actor and climate activist from a Dutch branch of Extinction Rebellion (XR), and Marjolein Kuijers, policy officer on the right to protest at the Dutch section of Amnesty International, about the government’s reaction to climate protests in the run-up to parliamentary elections in the Netherlands in November.
CIVICUS speaks with Alba Adriana Jiménez Patlán, director of the Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Mexico (ddeser), about the historic ruling of the Mexican Supreme Court decriminalising abortion at the federal level.
CIVICUS discusses Indigenous peoples' environmental activism and civil society's hopes for the upcoming COP28 climate summit with Fausto Daniel Santi Gualina, a leader of the Indigenous Sarayaku people of the Ecuadorian Amazon.
CIVICUS speaks with Isabel Abella Ruiz de Mendoza about the systemic macho violence faced by women in sport, evidenced in a recent case of abuse of power by the highest authority of the Spanish football federation.
CIVICUS speaks with Eleonora Giovio, sports editor of the Spanish newspaper El País, about the systemic abuses faced by women in sport, evidenced in a recent case of abuse of power by the highest authority in the Spanish football federation.
CIVICUS discusses the military coup in Gabon with Pepecy Ogouliguende, expert in human rights, governance, gender and peace mediation and founder and president of Malachie.
CIVICUS speaks about the situation of political prisoners on hunger strike in Bahrain with Jawad Fairooz, founder and director of Salam for Democracy and Human Rights (Salam DHR).
CIVICUS speaks about the ongoing repression of dissent in Egypt with Ahmed Attalla, Executive Director of the Egyptian Front for Human Rights (EFHR).
CIVICUS speaks about Zimbabwe’s August general election and its aftermath with Obert Masaraure, national president of Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe and spokesperson of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, which brings together 84 Zimbabwean civil society organisations (CSOs).
CIVICUS speaks with Sohrab Razaghi, executive director of Volunteer Activists (VA), about the situation in Iran on the anniversary of the anti-regime protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of morality police.
CIVICUS speaks about climate change, global inequality and the need for redistribution with Adrien Fabre, a France-based climate economist and founder of Global Redistribution Advocates (GRA).
NAMIBIA: ‘We have seen some progress on LGBTQI+ rights, but there is a lot of work still to be done’
CIVICUS speaks about recent moves to ban same-sex marriage in Namibia with Kevin Wessels, a young activist and a seasoned consultant and social entrepreneur working to advance human rights in Namibia.
CIVICUS discusses the military coup in Gabon with Georges Mpaga, National Executive President of the Network of Free Civil Society Organisations of Gabon (ROLBG).
CIVICUS speaks with Ana María Diez, president of Coalition for Venezuela, about the humanitarian crisis of Venezuelan migrants trying to reach the USA by land.
CIVICUS speaks about the state of civic space and the rights of excluded groups in Bangladesh with Shahanur Islam, founder secretary general of JusticeMakers Bangladesh (JMBD) and founder president of JMBD in France.
CIVICUS speaks with Nymia Pimentel-Simbulan about the human rights situation in the Philippines since the start of Ferdinand Marcos Junior’s government.
CIVICUS speaks with Monim Haroon, Emergency Communications Manager at the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), about the situation of Sudanese migrants in Chad’s refugee camps and civil society’s work to support them.
CIVICUS speaks about ongoing repression in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and the international response to Israeli aggression with Susan Power, Head of Legal Research and Advocacy at Al-Haq.
CIVICUS speaks with Cristina Palabay, Secretary General of Karapatan, about the human rights situation in the Philippines since the start of Ferdinand Marcos Junior’s government.
CIVICUS speaks about the upcoming presidential election in Maldives with Shahindha Ismail, founder of the Maldivian Democracy Network (MDN).
CIVICUS speaks about recent developments involving the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project and civil society’s efforts to stop it with Zaki Mamdoo, Campaign Coordinator of Stop EACOP.
CIVICUS speaks about the general election in Zimbabwe and the role of civil society with Wellington Mbofana, former director of the Civic Education Network Trust (CIVNET), a civil society organisation (CSO) that recently shut down due to lack of funding, and a former board member of several Zimbabwean CSOs.
CIVICUS speaks about the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) for civil society’s work with Omran Najjar, Kshitij Sharma, Leen D’hondt, Nasilele Amatende and Petya Kangalova of Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT).
CIVICUS speaks with Victoria Petrova, Communications and Development Director at the Bulgarian Fund for Women (BFW), about civil society’s struggles to end domestic and gender-based violence in Bulgaria.
CIVICUS discusses the hopes and roles of civil society at the forthcoming COP28 climate summit with climate justice activist Disha Ravi, founder of India’s branch of the youth-led climate movement Fridays for Future.
CIVICUS discusses the recent military coup in Niger with Clément Kocou Gbedey, Niger’s National Coordinator of the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP).
CIVICUS speaks with Mauricio Alarcón Salvador, executive director of Fundación Ciudadanía y Desarrollo (Citizenship and Development Foundation, FCD), about the elections that will be held in Ecuador on 20 August, the eruption of political violence and organised crime and the implications for civil society and the future of the country.
CIVICUS speaks about the deterioration of civic space in the run-up to next year’s elections in Senegal with Sadikh Niass, Secretary General of the African Meeting for the Defence of Human Rights (Rencontre Africaine pour la Défense des Droits de l’Homme, RADDHO), and Iba Sarr, Director of Programmes at RADDHO.
CIVICUS speaks about the restrictive conditions for civil society in Kyrgyzstan with Tolekan Ismailova, founding president of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society and director of the human rights movement One World-Kyrgyzstan (Bir Duino-Kyrgyzstan, BDK).
CIVICUS discusses the hopes and roles of civil society at the forthcoming COP28 climate summit with Harlee Richards, strategist at Follow This.
CIVICUS speaks with Mitch Rose, a volunteer activist with Just Stop Oil, about climate activism and its criminalisation in the UK.
CIVICUS speaks about 2023 Pride and Polish LGBTQI+ rights organisations’ response to the conservative backlash against LGBTQI+ rights with Annamaria Linczowska, advocacy and litigation officer at Campaign Against Homophobia (KPH).
CIVICUS discusses the hopes and roles of civil society at the forthcoming COP28 climate summit with Guillaume Kalonji, a youth climate activist and founder of Rise Up Movement DRC.
CIVICUS speaks with Sanjay Sharma, Programme Director of Nepal’s Blue Diamond Society, about the recent Supreme Court’s order to register same-sex marriages and civil society’s role in advancing LGBTQI+ rights in the country.
CIVICUS speaks with Nadia Benaissa, legal policy advisor at Bits of Freedom, about the risks artificial intelligence (AI) poses to human rights and the role civil society is playing in developing a legal framework for AI governance.
CIVICUS speaks about the situation of LGBTQI+ people in the context of Spain’s election with Emilio de Benito, spokesperson for Health and Seniors of the LGTB+ Collective of Madrid (COGAM).
CIVICUS speaks about the persecution faced by Hong Kong activists in exile with Anouk Wear, research and policy adviser at Hong Kong Watch.
CIVICUS speaks about 2023 Pride and the civil society response to the Turkish government’s anti-LGBTQI+ campaign with Damla Umut Uzun, international relations and fundraising officer at Kaos Gay and Lesbian Cultural Research and Solidarity Association (Kaos GL).
