These reports focus on a particular thematic issue surrounding the mandate – such as freedom of assembly and association in the context of elections – and contain substantive research on that issue, along with recommendations. They are issued in all six official UN languages.
In recent decades, globalization has led to a rise in economic productivity and wealth, but it has also contributed to a dramatic increase in the power of large multinational corporations and concentrated wealth in fewer hands. At the same time, States’ power to regulate these business entities has eroded — and in some cases been voluntarily ceded in order to attract these businesses. This new global economic order has had a profound impact on workers’ ability to exercise their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. Labour’s… Continue reading →
In this report, Maina Kiai’s third to the United Nations General Assembly, the Special Rapporteur compares the enabling environments that States, multilateral organizations and other actors create for businesses and associations, and highlights instances where they are treated inequitably. Although businesses and associations are distinct bodies that pursue different motives, they share similarities, most notably that they are both non-State actors and vehicles to unite people to pursue a particular goal, whether economic, political, social, cultural… Continue reading →
In Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai’s previous reports, he has focused on States’ obligations to ensure the free exercise of the rights to peacefully assemble and to associate at the national level. In this report, the Special Rapporteur examines the exercise of these rights at the international level – specifically in the context of multilateral institutions. Increasingly, global governance is becoming fragmented and diffused among a broad range of multilateral entities, ranging from well-known bodies such as the United Nations and World Bank to… Continue reading →
Elections are a unique moment in the life of any nation, determining the direction of policies and priorities. No other event better exemplifies the right to public participation. And no other time requires more robust exercise and protection of the freedoms of assembly and association. Worldwide, however, space for dissent is shrinking around election time – whether it is harassment of civil society groups in Zimbabwe, death threats against activists in Nicaragua, or smear campaigns against election monitors in Malaysia. This report – the the Special… Continue reading →
