PRETORIA, South Africa – Overcoming the current wave of government efforts to silence peaceful activists across the globe is “the great challenge of our time,” UN Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai told African civil society leaders this week. Civil society, donors and activists “must do better” in order to address this challenge, Kiai said, including by becoming more creative in how they confront restrictions on their fundamental rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. He focused particularly on donors, whom he said often… Continue reading →
GENEVA / BANJUL – United Nations and African independent human rights experts, including UN Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai, today hailed a key judgment by the High Court of Botswana asserting that the organisation ‘Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana’ (LEGABIBO) should be legally registered as a society by the authorities. The Court rejected last Friday the arguments put forward by the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs of Botswana to refuse legal registration to LEGABIBO, by decreeing that ‘it is not a crime for one to be attracted to… Continue reading →
United Nations Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai has released a concise, easy-to-use fact sheet on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, which summarizes key principles in international law and best practices for promotion of the right. (Nov. 21, 2014 update: Click here for the companion fact sheet on the right to freedom of association) The fact sheet, which fits on a single page front and back, draws heavily from the Special Rapporteur’s 2012 report on best practices to promote and protect the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of… Continue reading →
Issue No. 8 of the Assembly and Association Briefing, the newsletter of Maina Kiai, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. In this issue: • Special Rapporteur tells UN General Assembly that rights to peaceful assembly and association must also be protected at multilateral level • Kiai to OSCE states: restrictions on assembly and association rights contribute to rise of extremism • Malaysia Sedition Act threatens freedoms • Experts: Coordinated, multipronged approach needed to inject… Continue reading →
NEW YORK – In today’s globalized world, the meaning and practice of democracy stretches beyond national boundaries, United Nations human rights expert Maina Kiai has said today during the presentation of his report to the UN General Assembly on the exercise of the rights of freedom of peaceful assembly and of association at the multilateral level. “Decisions of multilateral institutions -which represent Governments- have a profound impact on the lives of ordinary people across the globe,” the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of… Continue reading →
