Issue No. 27 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 our final issue: • Kiai completes term as Rapporteur, hands over mandate to Annalisa Ciampi • A thank you message from former Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai – and news on work yet to come • Kiai launches FOAA Online! – a web-based collection of legal arguments on assembly and association rights • Special Rapporteur files interventions in South Africa and Zimbabwe cases • Venezuela: allow peaceful protests and investigate killing of demonstrators • UN experts urge Russia to drop Jehovah’s Witness lawsuit which threatens religious freedom • Russia: “Immediately release detained peaceful protesters” • UN rights experts urge lawmakers to stop “alarming” trend to curb freedom of assembly in the US • Ahead of referendum, UN experts warn Turkey about impact of purge on rights • UN experts urge United Arab Emirates: “Immediately release Ahmed Mansoor” • Belarus: expert decries of violence against protestors, demands release of all detained • Hungary urged by UN expert to reconsider new law targeting Central European University • Maina Kiai’s Testimony... Continue reading →
NAIROBI – Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai today announced the launch of FOAA Online!, a web-based legal research tool billed as the world’s most user-friendly compilation of legal arguments on assembly and association rights. The ready-made legal arguments, which are based on international law, standards and principles, will assist lawyers, activists and judges involved in freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association (FOAA) cases to uphold the exercise of these rights. FOAA Online! – which is available at https://freeassembly.net/foaa-online – is initially being launched with limited content for beta testing. Additional content will be added regularly, with the complete research tool available expected to be available in late June 2017. The tool is organized by thematic topics and sub-questions in order to direct users as straightforwardly as possible to relevant legal arguments. The set-up allows users to link the facts and incidents in their cases to pertinent legal questions. Themes and questions are focused on the most widespread issues experienced by those exercising their assembly and association rights around the globe. The idea for FOAA Online! grew out of the Special Rapporteur’s litigation project, which was started in 2014 to advance the rights to freedom of peaceful... Continue reading →
