Issue No. 24 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: • In final presentation to UN General Assembly, Special Rapporteur reflects on time in mandate; warns that situation for civil society remains ‘precarious’ • Corporate power undermining workers’ assembly and association rights, Kiai warns • Litigation project: Developments in cases in Kazakhstan, Brazil and USA • UN experts urge India to release prominent Kashmiri human rights defender • Democratic Republic of Congo: experts urge end to ‘unjustified’ ban on protests • Ethiopia: call for international investigation into systematic violence against protesters • Maina Kiai’s Foreword to the Civic Charter: the Framework for People’s Participation • Experts blast Kenya for excessive force against anti-corruption protesters • Mauritania: UN experts concerned about situation of jailed rights activists • Egypt NGO law: Special Rapporteur Kiai warns about growing restrictions on civil society • Iran: UN expert Shaheed calls for the immediate release of dual nationals • Assembly & association rights: By the numbers • Special Rapporteur news in... Continue reading →
NEW YORK – People’s ability to exercise their assembly and association rights in the workplace is deteriorating drastically worldwide, leading to worsened labour conditions, weaker social protections and increased inequalities, United Nations expert Maina Kiai told the UN General Assembly. Speaking during the presentation of his final report to the main UN body, the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association highlighted unyielding pursuit of profits, increasing corporate power and the changing nature of employment relationships as leading causes of this decline. “Assembly and association rights in the workplace continue to be undermined for a large proportion of workers, mainly because of an economic world order that relentlessly pursues ever-increasing growth and profit at all costs,” Mr. Kiai stated. “Meanwhile,” he added, “the growing power and geographic reach of large corporations has meant that States are increasingly unwilling or unable to regulate these business entities and their attempts to place profits ahead of the rights and dignity of workers.” The independent expert warned that, without the checks and balances provided by robust protection for workers’ rights, workers are inevitably seeing a decline in working conditions,... Continue reading →
NEW YORK – In his final presentation to the General Assembly today, Maina Kiai reflected on his 5½ years as the United Nations’ first-ever Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, and warned that the environment for exercising civic freedoms remained hazardous worldwide. “Unless there is renewed commitment from the world’s leaders, away from fear and control of their own people, and toward respecting the dignity of all, the situation will remain precarious for civil society globally,” the UN expert said. Kiai noted that his mandate was created at a time – late 2010 – when it was increasingly clear that individuals were demanding a larger say in public affairs and in decisions that affect them. It also covered a period during which the world faced a series of severe crises, ranging from growing poverty and inequality to violent extremism, to climate change, to failing states. “It was – and still is – a time when assembly and association rights were needed most, as an avenue for people to peacefully speak out, contribute their talents, share their ideas and help society work towards solving its problems,” he said. Yet many governments have reacted to these crises by taking destructive and counterproductive measures. “Instead of... Continue reading →
Statement by Maina Kiai SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON THE RIGHTS TO FREEDOM OF PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY AND OF ASSOCIATION 71st session of the General Assembly, Third Committee, Agenda item 68 (b) 20 October 2016, New York Madam Chairperson, Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present to you my final report as the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. It has been an honour to appear before this august body for the past four years and to draw much-needed attention to the challenges facing those who exercise the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association around the world. My mandate was created at a time when it was increasingly clear that individuals wanted and were demanding a larger say in public affairs and in decisions that affect them. The uprisings in different parts of the globe, most prominently the colour revolutions in the former Soviet Republics and the Arab awakening are testament to this. My time in the mandate also covered a period during which the world faced a series of severe crises: growing poverty and inequality, violent extremism, financial collapse, intolerance of “the other,” climate change, and failing states, just to name a few. It was – and still is – a time when assembly and association rights were... Continue reading →
NEW YORK – United Nations Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai will appear before the 71st Session of the UN General Assembly on October 20 to present his final report to the body – a study examining the exercise of assembly and association rights in the workplace. Kiai, who is has served as the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association since 2011, is scheduled to present at the General Assembly’s 71st Session on October 20, at 12 p.m. noon local (EST) time. The session will be broadcast live on http://webtv.un.org/. Kiai’s report – which is available here – scrutinizes the exercise and enjoyment of assembly and association rights in the context of labour, with a focus on the most marginalized workers, including global supply chain workers, informal workers, migrant workers, domestic workers and others. Although labour rights are sometimes seen as distinct from more general human rights, the Special Rapporteur emphasizes at the outset of the report that this thinking is false. The rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association are in fact the foundation for the exercise of all labour rights, since are the vehicle that protects workers’ ability to meet, organize and have a collective voice. “Labour rights are human rights, and the... Continue reading →
(NAIROBI/NEW YORK) – Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai has been chosen to receive the United Nations Foundation’s 2016 Leo Nevas Human Rights Award, and will travel to New York to accept the prize at the Foundation’s Global Leadership Dinner on Oct. 19. Fellow honorees at the event will include United States President Barack Obama – who will receive the foundation’s Champion for Global Change Award – and Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director of the World Food Programme. The Leadership Dinner is co-sponsored by the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA). The award honors Kiai’s work advancing civil liberties worldwide as UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. Kiai has served in the position since May 1, 2011. “I am honored and humbled to receive the 2016 Leo Nevas award for my work as Special Rapporteur,” Kiai said. “But in truth, this award recognizes something far beyond me personally: it is a validation of our collective global fight to restore civil society to its rightful place at the center of democracy and development. And it is an opportunity to spotlight this fight, because it is far from over. Peaceful protests continue to be put brutally down; members of civil society continue to be harassed,... Continue reading →
Issue No. 23 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 to present final report to UN General Assembly, examining assembly and association rights in the workplace • The 10 principles checklist: rate your country’s management of assemblies • South Korea: Kiai calls for investigation into lethal use of water cannon • Jordan: UN rights expert Kaye condemns killing of journalist Nahed Hattar • Sudan: Charges against rights activists could bring death penalty • DR Congo: UN experts deeply condemn new violent repression of protests • Ecuador: UN rights experts condemn ‘legal death’ of prominent teachers association UNE • USA: “Indigenous peoples must be consulted prior to pipeline construction” • Assembly & association rights: By the numbers • Special Rapporteur news in brief: September-October 2016 • World briefing: Assembly & association rights in the news For a link to the newsletter, click on the image at right or click here (5MB file). To subscribe to our newsletter, please drop us a line at info@freeassembly.net with the subject line “subscribe to newsletter.” For other recent... Continue reading →
The Special Rapporteur’s factsheet summarizing the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association in the workplace, presented in an easy-to use “yes/no” format, with hyperlinks to source materials. This factsheet is based on the Special Rapporteur’s 2016 report to the UN General Assembly and features guidance on: • The importance of assembly and association rights in the workplace • International laws and standards which protect the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association in the workplace • States’ responsibility to actively respect, protect, promote, and facilitate the enjoyment of fundamental rights – including labour rights • The impact of growing corporate power on workers' rights • Categories of workers most at risk of rights violations, including migrant workers, domestic workers, women and more • Examples of violations of workers' assembly and association rights drawn from the report • And more The factsheet also summarizes selected recommendations from the report and highlights key statistics in a “by the numbers” feature. For the Special Rapporteur’s full factsheet series, please see:... Continue reading →
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 traditional tools for asserting rights – trade unions, strikes, collective bargaining and so on – have been significantly weakened across the globe. The majority of the world’s workers find themselves excluded from national legal protective frameworks, while some are not even defined as "workers." This situation has left vast swathes of the world's labour force unable to exercise their fundamental rights to associate or assemble, and without access to remedies when their rights are violated. In this report, the Special Rapporteur examines how and why this has happened, focusing on the most marginalized portions of the world’s labour force, including global supply chain workers, informal workers, migrant workers, domestic workers and others. He finds... Continue reading →
The globalization of the world economy in the past half-century has contributed to a dramatic rise in the power of large multinational corporations and has concentrated wealth in fewer hands. State power to regulate these business entities, meanwhile, has been simultaneously eroded and co-opted by elite economic actors themselves. Unconstrained power – whether public or private in origin – is now, more than ever, a critical threat to the protection of human rights. This power shift has created a challenging environment for the enforcement of human rights, as Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai has documented in his two most recent reports on natural resource exploitation and the imbalance between how States treat businesses and civil society. For his next report to the UN General Assembly (October 2016), the Special Rapporteur plans to explore a new dimension of this power shift: its effect on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association of workers – specifically the most marginalized portions of the world’s labor force, such as global supply chain workers, informal workers, migrant workers and domestic workers. He will also examine gender and racial dimensions of the issue. The Special Rapporteur is particularly interested in the links between the political, social, and economic... Continue reading →
