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	2020 must be a year of multilateral action on nuclear arms, climate and gender by Mary Robinson Chair, The Elders   Jan. 2020   At this start of a new year and a new decade, the world faces two distinct existential threats: nuclear proliferation and the climate crisis.   Responding to these threats is critical, but made harder at a time when multilateral co-operation is being undermined by populism, nationalism and a failure of collective solidarity.   In a December 2019 statement on the crisis facing multilateralism, The Elders called on all world leaders to: 'acknowledge that effective multilateralism is in their own national interest, regardless of size or strength. Getting others to cooperate by means of internationally-agreed mechanisms is less costly and more reliable than unilateral force'.   Such an approach is not only needed in order to tackle the climate crisis and nuclear proliferation, but also crucially important in addressing the alarming escalation of tensions across the Middle East - Iran, Palestine, Libya, Syria and Yemen to name but a few.   As the United Nations marks its 75th year the world needs a new vision and a bold sense of purpose if we are to prevent the scourge of war and overcome the existential threats we face.   On nuclear non-proliferation, The Elders continue to speak clearly and forcefully about the need for all nuclear powers to get serious about disarmament and to act now to prevent incommensurable devastation. Crucially, this means the US and Russia taking clear steps in 2020 towards the renewal of the new START agreement on nuclear arms control.   On the climate crisis, The Elders recognize the need for a bold new initiative. The disappointing outcome of COP25 in Madrid shows that there is still insufficient political will for urgent, collective action to avert catastrophe.   We need a new mindset that recognises the urgency of the challenge the IPCC posed in its report on warming at 1.5C New ideas borne from a shared understanding that we need to reduce global carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 and be carbon neutral before 2050.   The United Nations will mark its 75th anniversary with a global dialogue on its future and purpose. This is a cause for celebration, but also for speaking frank truths. In an address to the UN Security Council earlier this month I made clear that the UN - and especially its Security Council, need to be a key player in tackling global challenges, but that it is seen by many as not being fit for purpose.   Too many member states, not least those with the special responsibility of holding Permanent Seats, treat it as a forum for advancing their own narrow interests rather than a means of addressing common challenges.   The Elders also call on UN member states to do more in 2020 to advance gender equality. Women drew up a remarkable multilateral agenda in Beijing 25 years ago, and this year also marks the twentieth anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, conflict and peacebuilding. But women now face a backlash in marking these momentous anniversaries. Greater priority must be given to the terrible problem of systemic violence and discrimination against women and girls, a cause of immense suffering that The Elders will continue to draw attention to.   When The Elders founder, Nelson Mandela, addressed the UN General Assembly on 3rd October 1994 as President of South Africa he posed this question: 'given the interdependence of the nations of the world, what is it that we can and must do to ensure that democracy, peace and prosperity prevail everywhere?'   To which he suggested a new initiative was needed, one that 'should inspire all of humanity because of the seriousness of its intent'.   The time for such a new initiative to protect people and planet is surely now. Future generations will neither forget nor forgive if we squander this opportunity. Visit the related web page
	People Power Under Attack 2019 by CIVICUS, Human Rights Watch, agencies   Dec. 2019   The CIVICUS Monitor has released People Power Under Attack 2019, a new report showing that the fundamental freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression are backsliding across the world.   In the space of a year, twice as many people are living in countries where these civic freedoms are being violated: 40% of the world's population now live in repressed countries - last year it was 19%.   The report, which is based on data from the CIVICUS Monitor, a global research collaboration, shows that civil society is under attack in most countries. In practice, this means that just 3% of the world's population are now living in countries where their fundamental rights are in general, protected and respected - last year it was 4%.   2019 has been a historic year for protest movements. From the streets of Sudan to Hong Kong, people have poured onto the streets to make their voices heard.   However, according to the 536 updates by the CIVICUS Monitor, the fundamental right to peaceful assembly is under attack across the world.   In fact, within the last year the CIVICUS Monitor documented that 96 countries either detained protesters, disrupted marches or used excessive force to prevent people from fully exercising their right to peaceful assembly.   'This data reflects a deepening civic space crisis across the globe. As millions of protesters spilled onto the streets, government response has been repression instead of dialogue', said Marianna Belalba Barreto, Civic Space Research Lead at CIVICUS. 'However, the fact that so many activists were brave enough to raise their voices, shows the resilience of civil society in the face of brutal repression'.   Nine countries have changed their civic space rating: seven countries have been downgraded and only two improved their rating. Worrying signs for civic space are recorded in Asia-Pacific, where three countries dropped a rating: Australia, India and Brunei.   There is growing concern about the decline of democratic and civic rights in Europe, with Malta also being downgraded. Other countries on the slide include Nigeria, Comoros and Madagascar.   People Power Under Attack 2019 also provides analysis on the kinds of violations most frequently recorded on the CIVICUS Monitor over the past year. Globally, censorship is the most common violation, occurring across 178 countries. From blocking websites and social media, to banning television programmes, governments across the world are going to great lengths to control public discourse and suppress free speech.   There are bright spots emerging, as both Moldova and the Dominican Republic improved their ratings this past year. The Dominican Republic moved from the obstructed to narrowed category after civil society managed to challenge and overturn restrictive laws; these laws related to defamation cases and constitutional amendments which would lengthen Presidential terms.   Over twenty organisations collaborate on the CIVICUS Monitor to provide an evidence base for action to improve civic space on all continents. The Monitor has posted more than 536 civic space updates in the last year, which are analysed in People Power Under Attack 2019.   Civic space in 196 countries is categorized as either closed, repressed, obstructed, narrowed or open, based on a methodology which combines several sources of data on the freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression.   http://monitor.civicus.org/PeoplePowerUnderAttack2019/ http://www.civicus.org/index.php/action-against-the-anti-rights-wave http://www.civicus.org/index.php/media-center/news   Dec. 2019   The Enduring Power of Protest - Around the World, People are putting their lives at risk to Defend Rights, highlights Nic Dawes from Human Rights Watch.   For those who believe the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice, the past 10 years have been a reminder that it is also long.   Indeed, as we mark the final Human Rights Day of this decade, we are ending the way we began in the streets. In Hong Kong, Nicaragua, in Algeria, Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran and elsewhere people have been on the march, facing bullets, beatings, and prison to demand an end to repressive and unaccountable government, to reject corrupt elites, and secure their rights.   Are they naive? Or do they know something important and powerful? And what of the lawyers and communities challenging injustice in court, the investigators building meticulous records of human rights crimes, the journalists dragging into public view the buried facts, the advocates and activists pressuring and cajoling governments, companies, and other powerful actors to defend human dignity?   They persist because they know the power of protest and resistance, and the efficacy of the human rights ideal, even if the tally of the past decade offers little encouragement.   From 2010 through 2012, protest movements swept across Iran and much of the Arab world. But in 2019, Tunisia stands alone among the countries of the Arab Spring in making the transition to democracy, and among its neighbors renewed repression and brutal wars have followed the uprisings.   Hundreds of thousands have died, millions have been injured, and tens-of-millions have been displaced. The cost in lives, resources, and squandered potential is incalculable.   Ten years ago, the smartphones and social platforms that helped to enable the protests were celebrated as vectors of positive change, opening avenues for speech and organizing beyond the control of authoritarian governments. They are now more often seen as fueling division, empowering surveillance, invading our privacy, and eviscerating the economic underpinnings of a free press.   Those who have sought refuge from obliterating violence and repression have met a rising tide of xenophobia, as politicians long confined to the margins of power ride a narrative of cultural, economic, and security threat, often focused on Muslims, refugees, LGBT people - anyone seen as the 'other' to its center. They have sometimes been buoyed by hyper-partisan and often fraudulent media operations.   In the world's biggest democracies - India, Brazil, and the United States - the gravest threats to human rights and democracy come from elected presidents who openly praise dictators, demonize minorities, and undercut the rule of law, putting vulnerable populations at even greater risk.   It would be easy to make a longer list of reversals: the promise of South Sudan, newly independent in 2011, now mired in war; Myanmar, where the pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has emerged as an apologist for ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity; Tanzania, where the media and civil society face ever tighter controls, arrests, and killing.   And in Russia, a protest movement in 2011 held out hope for change, but instead Vladimir Putin increased his grip domestically and enhanced his influence globally.   Perhaps nowhere exemplifies the retreat more starkly than China, where once some Western analysts breezily promised that rising prosperity would bring progress on human rights and democracy. Instead, President Xi Jinping has put the fruits of development to work to build an algorithmically enhanced authoritarianism unrivalled in the scope of its ambition for control.   And yet. The protesters taking to the streets in Lebanon and elsewhere are not looking to a global scoresheet and calculating their chances. They are demonstrating that power without legitimacy can be checked in local struggles rooted in the demand for accountability, and ultimately for human rights.   Ethiopia's initial opening toward greater democratic space under President Abiy Ahmed tells us that some leaders appear to have learned this lesson, despite the crowing autocrats on the world stage.   And it isn't only in street protest or in national struggle that we see the tools and values of human rights successfully at work.   The millions of women and girls who bravely stepped forward to publicly share their stories in response to Tarana Burke's #MeToo call built a global movement demanding an end to sexual violence. Persistent journalists turned accounts of Harvey Weinstein's predation from Hollywood gossip into international news, and across the world, investigative reporting exposed the misogynistic abuses of other powerful figures. They did so in the face of a US president whose misogyny is proudly on display.   Trade unions and women's rights groups successfully fought for a new international treaty protecting against violence and harassment at work. Unevenly perhaps, but unstoppably, court cases, new regulations, a resetting of workplace norms, and sustained activism are creating new protections for women's basic right to be free of harassment and violence.   Spurred by litigation, culture change, and legislators responding to social movements, the rights of LGBT people are expanding around the world. A rearguard action by opponents including in Russia and the United States, decrying 'gender ideology' and battling the spread of both women's reproductive rights and LGBT rights is meeting both energized defense, and deep shifts in public opinion.   In a thousand smaller struggles, the embedding of human rights standards in domestic and international law is helping to bring the perpetrators of war crimes to justice, to secure land and environmental rights for communities threatened by development, and forcing companies to respect their human rights responsibilities.   Local human rights defenders around the world don't rely solely on the courage of their own conviction, or even the force of local law, rooted in their own experience, cultures, and struggles, they are also part of a global ecosystem of shared norms, institutions, strategic collaboration, and communication that forms a resilient mesh that should be fostered and sustained.   It will be needed more than ever in the face of this decade's epochal failure, and the signal challenge of the next: the climate emergency.   Ten years ago, in Copenhagen, governments arrived at the outlines of a consensus on the science of global warming. What they couldn't agree on was a binding deal to do something meaningful to stop it. They did better in Paris in 2016, but emissions keep rising regardless, as powerful denialists like Trump push back on the agreement, and even those who admit the urgency of the problem fail to make the required trade-offs needed to slow and halt the build-up of CO2 in the atmosphere.   Climate change is already driving conflict and extreme weather, threatening health, and constricting access to water. Its effects are set to worsen, and they will affect every dimension of human rights.   But a new global social movement is growing, in schools and on the streets. And existing norms around water, health, humanitarian disasters, and livelihoods offer a rich framework for building the accountability that is needed to spur action from wanton governments and companies.   If we are back to where we started the decade, we know the task, we have the tools and, like the protesters, we know the value of sticking to it.   http://www.hrw.org/news/2019/12/10/enduring-power-protest http://mondediplo.com/2020/01/01world-protest http://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/shrinking-space-for-freedom-of-peaceful-assembly http://www.cesr.org/human-rights-and-global-protests-addressing-systems-well-symptoms http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/jan/16/one-in-four-countries-beset-by-civil-strife-as-global-unrest-soars   * World Report 2020: http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020   Dec. 2019   Global Expression Report 2018-19: global freedom of expression at a ten-year low. (Article 19)   The Global Expression Report 2018-19 shows that global freedom of expression at its lowest for a decade. Gains that were made between 2008-2013 have been eroded over the last five years.   Repressive responses to street protests are contributing to the decline in freedom of expression around the world. A rise in digital authoritarianism sees governments taking control of internet infrastructure, increasing online surveillance and controlling content.   The numbers of journalists, communicators and human rights defenders being imprisoned, attacked and killed continues to increase. 66 countries - with a combined population of more than 5.5 billion people - saw a decline in their overall freedom of expression environment last decade.   http://www.article19.org/reader/global-expression-report-2018-19/ Visit the related web page
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