The Special Rapporteur’s factsheet summarizing his official visit to the United States of America in July 2016 highlights issues surrounding the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association and is presented in an easy-to use “yes/no” format, with hyperlinks to source materials. This factsheet draws heavily from the Special Rapporteur’s report on the United States visit, which was presented to the Human Rights Council in June 2015. It provides details and analysis of: • Problems related to the United States extensive use of a permit system for authorizing peaceful assemblies • The increasingly militarized police response to peaceful assemblies • Discriminatory policing of assemblies held by minority communities • The effect of so-called "right to work" laws on workers' ability to exercise their association rights in the workplace • Restrictions on migrant workers' ability to exercise their assembly and association rights • The US election campaign finance system's impact on association rights • The United States Government's response to the report • And more The factsheet also gives background information on the United States, including vital statistics and its “scorecard” on ratifying key UN human rights treaties. For the Special... Continue reading →
GENEVA – Former United Nations Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai will be in Geneva June 6-9, 2017, for the release of his final four reports to the Human Rights Council, and for a handful of side-events. The reports – a thematic report mapping the achievements of civil society, country reports on his visits to the United States and the United Kingdom in 2016, and a communications report – will be presented by his successor, Annalisa Ciampi. The new Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association is scheduled to start her interactive dialogue with the Council at 15:00 on June 6. It may continue from 15:00 on June 7 as well. The presentation will take place at the Palais des Nations, Room XX; it will be broadcast live on http://webtv.un.org/. Thematic report: Mapping the achievements of civil society Kiai’s sixth and final thematic report to the Council maps and quantifies the myriad ways in which civil society has improved societies globally in the past decade: protecting civil and political rights, advancing development objectives, moving societies towards freedom and equality, achieving and upholding peace, regulating corporate behaviour, protecting the environment, delivering essential services, and advocating for economic, social and cultural... Continue reading →
The Special Rapporteur’s factsheet summarizing the achievements of civil society over the past decade-plus, presented in an easy-to use “yes/no” format, with hyperlinks to source materials. This factsheet is based on the Special Rapporteur’s 2017 report to the Human Rights Council and features guidance on: • The connection between a vibrant civil society and a country's social, political and economic development. • The connection between civil society and democracy • Civil society's direct economic contributions • "What has civil society done for you lately?" - selected examples of civil society's important recent achievements, taken from the report • And more For the Special Rapporteur’s full factsheet series, please see:... Continue reading →
Has civil society made the world a better place? Where and when has civil society made concrete and identifiable achievements? What would the world look like without civil society? These are the central questions that the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, addresses in this, his final thematic report to the United Nations Human Rights Council. Throughout history and across cultures, associational life has enabled people to hold the powerful to account, to advocate for – and directly implement – progressive social changes, and to address many of the tensions inherent to collective human action. From the anti-slavery and anti-apartheid movements, to transnational advocacy campaigns against poverty and inequality, to women’s suffrage movements across the globe, to the countless thousands of human rights groups, grassroots and informal associations, and human rights defenders seeking to improve livelihoods and hold governments to account – the transformative power of civil society is seemingly self-evident. However, civil society’s role in changing societies for the better is deeply contested. The space for civil society globally is closing rapidly. In established democracies as well as autocratic regimes and states in... Continue reading →
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 →
GENEVA – United Nations Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai will be in Geneva March 6-10 to participate in several events surrounding the 34th Session of the UN Human Rights Council. It will be his final appearance on the margins of a Council session as Special Rapporteur. On Monday, March 6, the Special Rapporteur will moderate a side event on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association in the workplace, a follow-up to his Oct. 2016 report to the UN General Assembly. Other featured speakers include Kate Gilmore (United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights), Deborah Greenfield (ILO’s Deputy Director General for Policy), Raquel Gonzalez (Director of ITUC’s Geneva Office) and Shawna Bader-Blau (Executive Director of the Solidarity Center). The event will take place from 12 to 2 pm (Geneva time) in Room XXI of the Palais des Nations, and will be live-streamed on CIVICUS's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CIVICUS/ The Special Rapporteur will also speak at a side-event on Tuesday, March 7, focusing on civil society and human rights defenders in Azerbaijan. The event, which is being organized by Human Rights House Foundation and a number of other organizations, will be held from 12:30 to 2 pm in Room XII of the Palais des Nations. Other panelists include Michel... Continue reading →
The space for civil society globally has shrunk dramatically over the last 10 years. In established democracies as well as in autocratic regimes and states in transition, laws and practices constraining freedoms of association and of peaceful assembly have flourished. Despite this context, civil society has also made numerous significant achievements over the past decade. NGOs, charities, social movements, religious groups, labour unions, journalists, and other civil society groupings have radically improved societies and peoples’ lives across the globe. Civil society has protected and defended civil and political rights, worked to alleviate poverty and advance development objectives, worked to regulate corporate behaviour, protected the environment, and delivered essential services, to name but a few examples. For his final report to the UN Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur plans to comprehensively codify the achievements and successes of civil society over the last decade. The report is intended to serve as a reminder of just how important civil society is for peace, security, prosperity, social progress and human rights. What’s your opinion and experience? The Special Rapporteur convened an expert consultation to discuss this subject in November 2016 in Bangkok. But he would also... Continue reading →
Issue No. 21 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: • Kiai tells Human Rights Council that fundamentalist intolerance is degrading assembly & association rights • Kenya: UNSR tells court that 2015 protest ban violated assembly rights • Contribute to the UNSR’s next report: FoAA rights in the context of labor • Human rights must gain new momentum at World Humanitarian Summit • Problem of closing civic space creeps into UN NGO Committee • Rapporteurs urge India to repeal law restricting NGO’s access to foreign funding • UN expert deplores harsh sentencing of Tajikistan opposition leaders and warns of radicalization • Egypt: Worsening crackdown on protests • UN human rights experts urge Cambodia to stop attacks against civil society • Iran: Denial of adequate medical treatment to political prisoners unacceptable • ‘A travesty of justice’ – UN experts condemn conviction of prominent Iran activist • China: Newly adopted Foreign NGO Law should be repealed, UN experts urge • Somalia: Experts alarmed over growing persecution against trade unionists • Kazakhstan clampdown on land reform... Continue reading →
GENEVA – The phenomenon of fundamentalism is fueling growing intolerance worldwide, which poses a grave threat to the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, United Nations expert Maina Kiai told the Human Rights Council today in presenting his latest report on religious, free market, political, and nationalist or cultural fundamentalism. “The concept of fundamentalism cannot be limited to religion,” cautioned the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. “It can and should be defined more expansively, to include any movements – not simply religious ones – that advocate strict and literal adherence to a set of basic beliefs or principles.” “At its core, this report is about the struggle between tolerance and intolerance,” Mr. Kiai stressed. “The people of the world speak some 7,000 languages, practice 270 major religions, live in 193 UN Member States and belong to thousands of cultures. But we share only one planet,” the human rights expert said. “We will not always agree. But tolerance towards our differences is the only way to make sure that they do not boil over into violence, oppression and conflict.” For the Special Rapporteur, the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association are the... Continue reading →
GENEVA – United Nations Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai is in Geneva this week to present his latest reports to the 32nd session of the UN Human Rights Council. Kiai’s presentation to the Council on June 17 will be his last as Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association (his final report to the Council will be presented by his successor in June 2017). Kiai will present two reports covering his country visits to Chile and the Republic of Korea and a third focusing on the impact of fundamentalism on assembly and association rights (FOAA rights). A fourth report contains his observations on the mandate’s official communications with UN Member States and replies between March 1, 2015, and February 28, 2016. The June 17 presentation will take place at the Palais des Nations, Room XX; it is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. The session will be broadcast live on http://webtv.un.org/. Thematic report: Fundamentalism and FOAA rights Kiai’s fourth thematic report to the Council examines the role that that fundamentalist ideologies play in restricting assembly and association rights. Although fundamentalism is often defined in exclusively religious terms, the Special Rapporteur takes a much broader view of the concept in this report. He argues that... Continue reading →
