CIVICUS Voices – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Summary  

Doctors, the backbone of any healthcare system, are often at the forefront of advocating for change. In this podcast episode, we delve into recent and ongoing doctors’ protests and medical crisis in Kenya, and the UK. Why are doctors protesting? Are there any ethical implications for protesting and striking? What governments need to prioritize to respond to their grievances? 

Guests 

Steve Ougo, Sexual and Reproductive Justice Activist, medical student working in youth health in Kenya

Sridhar Venkatapuram, Senior Lecturer in Global Health and Philosophy at King’s College London. He sits on the ethics committee of the British Medical Association (BMA)

You can find CIVICUS online and on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. CIVICUS Voices is hosted by Aarti Narsee and produced by Elna Schutz, Jamaine Krige, and the CIVICUS team.

Summary 

From the rise of social media to the advent of Artificial Intelligence, these technologies have revolutionized how protest movements are organized and how voices are heard. Yet, with increased surveillance and stricter laws, the digital battleground is complex. 

This episode covers how the digital realm has opened up new frontiers for activism: what are the opportunities and challenges for the future of protest? 

Guests: 

Clement Voule, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly 

Kumi Naidoo, prominent South African human rights and environmental justice activist. Former head of Amnesty, Greenpeace and CIVICUS

You can find CIVICUS online and on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. CIVICUS Voices is hosted by Aarti Narsee and produced by Elna Schutz, Jamaine Krige, and the CIVICUS team.

Significant strides have been made across the globe in recognising and upholding the rights of sexual minorities, but despite these successes, the past year has also seen major setbacks when it comes to LGBTQI+ rights. This episode talks to human rights defenders from across the African continent, where anti-rights sentiments and regressive legislation is gaining ground.

We talk to Executive Director of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), Frank Mugisha, who is an openly gay activist in a country that recently passed what is widely considered the harshest anti-homosexuality laws in the world.

Also from Uganda, human rights lawyer Rose Wakikona explains the impact of these laws and their far-reaching implications for the rest of the region.

Finally, we’ll hear from Henry Wackam, who was forced to flee Cameroon because of his sexual orientation. Henry is the founder of Rainbow Refuge Africa, a network for LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers living in South Africa, where he now lives.  

You can find CIVICUS online and on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. CIVICUS Voices is hosted by Aarti Narsee and produced by Elna Schutz, Jamaine Krige, and the CIVICUS team.

Freedom of peaceful assembly is a fundamental right exercised around the world, especially where we see democracies backsliding, governments failing to listen to the people, and amid growing anti-rights backlash.

To kick of this season we look at what has been happening in the last year. Marianna Belalba Barreto leads the Civic Space Research team at CIVICUS and tracks civic space globally. 

Then we hear what it has been like to organise protests, with Ruki Fernando from Sri Lanka, where the economy crashed and a state of emergency was declared. 

You can find CIVICUS online and on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. CIVICUS Voices is hosted by Aarti Narsee and produced by Elna Schutz, Jamaine Krige, and the CIVICUS team.

At the beginning of 2022, there were more than 27 million refugees worldwide, and their right to protest is often limited or repressed. 

Nadia Hardman, a researcher in the Refugee and Migrants Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, speaks to us about these challenges. 

Later, Abdul Aziz Muhamat shares his story as a Sudanese refugee who became an advocate for refugee rights while under long-term detention at the Australian government detention centre on Manus Island.

You can find CIVICUS online and on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. CIVICUS Voices is hosted by  Aarti Narsee and produced by Amal Atrakouti, Elna Schutz, Jamaine Krige, and the CIVICUS team.

Photos, source material and transcript are available here: https://www.civicus.org/index.php/media-center/resources/podcastcivicusvoices/#episode6

You can find CIVICUS online and on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. CIVICUS Voices is hosted by Aarti Narsee and produced by Elna Schutz, Jamaine Krige, and the CIVICUS team.

When there has been a coup d’état in a country, the protests surrounding this regime-change are often critical but difficult. 

In this episode, we look at how this works, through the example of Myanmar, where the military junta took over control from the democratically elected ruling party in 2021. Thinzar Shunlei Yi, the advocacy coordinator at the Action Committee for Democracy Development speaks about the role of protests in the country, before Wai Hnin Pwint Thon from the Burma Campaign UK shares how she has been supporting the cause from abroad. You can find CIVICUS online and on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.  CIVICUS Voices is hosted by  Aarti Narsee and produced by Amal Atrakouti, Elna Schutz, Jamaine Krige, and the CIVICUS team.

Photos, source material and transcript are available here: https://www.civicus.org/index.php/media-center/resources/podcastcivicusvoices/#episode5

You can find CIVICUS online and on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. CIVICUS Voices is hosted by Aarti Narsee and produced by Elna Schutz, Jamaine Krige, and the CIVICUS team.

The fight for sexual and reproductive health and rights is being waged in countries around the world, as people seek to access legal and affordable reproductive health care services, like contraception, sex education, safe pregnancies, and abortions. 

In this episode, we speak to Justyna Wydrzyńska, from the Polish group Aborcyjny Dream Team (ADT). Justyna is the first pro-choice activist in Europe to have been charged with aiding someone in an abortion.

Later, we hear a success story from Argentina’s Green Wave, where activists pushed for the legalisation of abortion and won. Giselle Carino is the CEO of Fòs Feminista and has been a part of this activism for years.  You can find CIVICUS online and on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.  CIVICUS Voices is hosted by  Aarti Narsee and produced by Amal Atrakouti, Elna Schutz, Jamaine Krige, and the CIVICUS team.

Photos, source material and transcript available here: https://www.civicus.org/index.php/media-center/resources/podcastcivicusvoices/#episode4

You can find CIVICUS online and on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. CIVICUS Voices is hosted by Aarti Narsee and produced by Elna Schutz, Jamaine Krige, and the CIVICUS team.

There are over one billion young people between the ages of 15 and 24 worldwide, but their voices are often left out in policy spaces and in decision-making. Youth-led movements are an important part of civil society, and key in motivating for change that will affect generations to come.

In this episode, Syed Ali Abbas Zaidi, who is involved with HIVE Pakistan, describes how youth activism can flourish. Later, former student activist and Wits Fees Must Fall leader Busisiwe Catherine Seabe from South Africa shares her experiences being on the ground.

You can find CIVICUS online and on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. CIVICUS Voices is hosted by Aarti Narsee and produced by Amal Atrakouti, Elna Schutz, Jamaine Krige, and the CIVICUS team.

Photos, source material and transcript available here: https://www.civicus.org/index.php/media-center/resources/podcastcivicusvoices/#episode3

You can find CIVICUS online and on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. CIVICUS Voices is hosted by Aarti Narsee and produced by Elna Schutz, Jamaine Krige, and the CIVICUS team.

Protesting is particularly difficult if you live in a country where your right to protest is limited in your actions and opinions. The authorities and governments of closed or repressed countries do everything in their power to curtail the right of its citizens to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly: internet shutdowns, restrictive legislation, violence, and unfair arrests. So how do people living in these repressed spaces go about mobilising and protesting?

In this episode, Nadim Nashif, the founder and executive director of 7amleh, the Arab Centre for Social Media Advancement, explains how Palestinians have developed creative forms of digital protests. 

Then, one of the organisers of the national strike in Colombia (el Paro Nacional), Sandra Sierra, shares her emotional and important experiences of protesting under pressure. 

You can access source material and full transcript of the episode on our website here. You can find CIVICUS online and on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. CIVICUS Voices is hosted by  Aarti Narsee and produced by Amal Atrakouti, Elna Schutz, Jamaine Krige, and the CIVICUS team.
Photos, source material and transcript available here: https://www.civicus.org/index.php/media-center/resources/podcastcivicusvoices/#episode2

You can find CIVICUS online and on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. CIVICUS Voices is hosted by Aarti Narsee and produced by Elna Schutz, Jamaine Krige, and the CIVICUS team.

This second season of CIVICUS Voices focusses on the Freedom of Peaceful Assembly. We kick it off by discussing the basics of protesting: Protesting 101. Peaceful Assembly is an international fundamental right and it comes in many different forms that have evolved with time and technology. 

Luciana Pol, from the Center for Legal and Social Studies in Argentina, explains why this right is so important. 

Busisiwe Zasekhaya, the project coordinator at Right2Protest in South Africa describes the challenges protest-organisers face and how to overcome them. 

For an on-the-ground perspective, Abigail Freeman, the executive director of Alliance for Gender Justice and Human Rights, from Liberia shares her experience in organising protests. 

Head to the podcast webpage to navigate the resources and source material for this episode. You can find CIVICUS online and on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. CIVICUS Voices is hosted by  Aarti Narsee and produced by Amal Atrakouti, Elna Schutz, Jamaine Krige, and the CIVICUS team.

Photos, source material and transcript available here: https://www.civicus.org/index.php/media-center/resources/podcastcivicusvoices

You can find CIVICUS online and on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. CIVICUS Voices is hosted by Aarti Narsee and produced by Elna Schutz, Jamaine Krige, and the CIVICUS team.