On August 15, 2017, Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal sentenced Nathan Law to eight months in prison for organizing over 200,000 pro-democracy Umbrella Movement demonstrators on a 79-day blockade in the business districts of Hong Kong three years ago. Fellow organizers Joshua Wong and Alex Chow were also tried and sentenced to six and seven months in…
CIVICUS launched a new SPEAK! Campaign, designed to amplify voices of citizens and foster new collaborations among democracy activists. The campaign will lead into CIVICUS’s Global Days of Citizen Action (GDCA) this September. With the launch, CIVICUS debuted a campaign website featuring partner events, activists stories, and opportunities to get involved in the global campaign.…
Three Lebanese human rights activists who requested a permit to organize a peaceful sit-in at Samir Kassir Square in Beirut, Lebanon have had their names leaked online. Shortly after the leak, the three organizers received death threats and cancelled their July 18 sit-in, which aimed to draw attention to the systematic discrimination Syrian refugees endure…
In the morning on July 20, Malaysian immigration authorities detained prominent Bangladeshi activist Adilur Rahman Khan for 16 hours without an explanation after he arrived at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Khan is the Founder and Secretary of Odhikar, a civil society organization that monitors human rights abuses in Bangladesh and local member of International…