Click here to discover all issues of the GCHRJ

Permanent URI for this community

https://reponew.gchumanrights.org/handle/20.500.11825/29

Browse

Browsing Click here to discover all issues of the GCHRJ by Subject "activists"
  • Item
    A contradictory 2019 in the Arab world: The heralds of a second Arab Spring in times of increased vulnerability and upgraded authoritarianism
    (Global Campus of Human Rights, 2020) Ait Youssef, Iasmin ; Alsheikh Ali, Rana ; Comaro, Elena ; Diana, Elise ; Lavigne Delville, Solène ; Maaninou, Nouha ; Pannunzio, Marta ; Werf, Charlotte : van der
    During the year 2019 mass mobilisations broke out throughout the Arab region, with protestors calling for regime change and denouncing mismanagement, corruption and the lack of basic services and human rights in countries as diverse as Algeria, Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt. In some cases they were violently opposed and quelled; in others they brought about a transitional process. These democratic processes and authoritarian reactions were accompanied by an important case of democratic consolidation in Tunisia and peaceful transfer of power in Mauritania. Some observers saw in these movements the sparks of a second Arab Spring, while others noted an upgrading of authoritarianism, through different repression techniques against protesters, activists and civil society organisations. Security forces and tribunals have been used for repression, but so have new constitutional and legislative texts that have shifted the balance of power in favour of the executive and the military. The repression of cyberspace was extended through new technological tools that allow for the monitoring, tracking and silencing of dissenting voices. Beyond these two opposing dynamics, the socio-economic situation in many countries across the region deteriorated, increasing the vulnerability of groups such as women, children, stateless persons and refugees. The socio-economic situation has also provided several local, national, regional and international actors with a means to exercise economic violence that typically impact on the most vulnerable, depriving them of their most basic human rights or allowing them only conditional access to these rights. Key words: democratisation; authoritarianism; cyber control; socio-economic violence; refugees; protests, human rights; Arab Spring; oppression; arrests
  • Item
    Russian anti-war activists continue feminist tradition of opposing violence
    (Global Campus Human Rights, 2022) Koltsova, Maria
    Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, several anti-war movements have been organised in Russia or by Russian emigrants abroad. One of them is Feminist Anti-War Resistance—a horizontal feminist organisation creating online and offline protest actions against the war in Ukraine. The article tells the story of the activists and explains why feminist ideas are so important in opposing the war.