In Russia, China, Iran, Burma and many other countries, people have mobilized, sometimes massively, to defend their freedom and demand rights. Security and freedom of expression, social rights, sexual orientations and gender identities, climatic threats: the many battles are converging everywhere. “It is proof that human rights are not just a concept and that they are universal”says Bruno Stagno, head of advocacy at Human Rights Watch.
In its 2023 report entitled A new model of global leadership, the NGO covers a hundred countries in which it lists human rights violations, which increasingly put international institutions to the test. Beyond that, she has chosen to highlight the citizen mobilizations that have emerged, often very quickly and massively, in coalition or more spontaneously, in most of these countries.
The NGO sees this as an opportunity that States must seize to pursue political, economic and social shifts that have already begun or have become inevitable. She encourages them to grant “more attention and energy” protest movements and civil society organizations that challenge them.
Unprecedented uprisings
Some popular uprisings have particularly marked the year 2022. In Iran, a new generation of protesters, not always organized, expresses its anger at being deprived of its fundamental rights and defies the repression of the mullahs. In Burma, the civil disobedience movements that emerged after the military coup in 2021 still dare to provoke flash demonstrations against the dictatorship.
In some African countries, the military coups of the past two years have sometimes provoked unprecedented uprisings. In Sudan, despite the repression, almost weekly demonstrations, bringing together militant movements and unaffiliated civilians, have continued to punctuate the life of the inhabitants since the head of the army, General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, took power in October 2021. .
Inflation, gender, climate: there are many battles…
The denunciation of economic inequalities gained momentum in the protest in 2022. In Kazakhstan, in January, the sudden increase in fuel prices provoked an unexpectedly large protest, extended to demands for political and economic reforms . In Sri Lanka, the people gathered massively to express their dismay as the country is crumbling under debt and in July caused the resignation of the government.
Women’s movements are reclaiming public space where they can, demanding sexual and reproductive health rights and greater representation. The “green wave” of feminist groups demanding the extension of abortion rights has spread to the four corners of Latin America and has already provoked important advances in Argentina, Mexico and Colombia.
In another register, the international community must apply the prism of human rights to the threat posed by climate change. In the face of catastrophic floods, fires and droughts, it is the most vulnerable who pay the heaviest price. States must also regulate industries, such as fossil fuels and logging, whose business models are no longer compatible with the protection of rights. In Europe, several environmental groups have taken legal action against the European Commission after the adoption of a controversial law aimed at including fossil gas in the list of sustainable investments of the EU.
… blind spots too
Many blind spots remain, the conflict in Ethiopia, the Taliban regime in Afghanistan or Chinese repression against the Uyghurs. In all cases, “the breadth, scale and frequency of human rights crises around the world demonstrate the urgency of a new framework and a new model of action to defend them»concludes the report.