CIVICUS Voices

The last thing students and their parents should be worrying about is whether children will be safe while attending school, and yet school shootings and attacks are a real threat around the world.

Bruno Langeani, a project manager at the Instituto Sou da Paz, helps us understand the trends and nuances of school violence in Brazil, and what can really make a change. 

Vuk Cvetković us a Serbian high school student who works with the “I mi se pitamo” initiative and shares his views on how rare school shootings have mobilised tens of thousands to protest more broadly in that country. 

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.

Safe and accessible drinking water is a crucial right that sadly continues to be threatened in different ways for communities around the work. So, it’s no surprise that access to water is frequently a protest demand, from Ethiopia to the United States. 

We speak to Alana Potter the global coordinator of EndWaterPoverty at WaterAid to give us an international perspective.

Faeza Meyer, a community organiser at the African Water Commons Collective, shares her experiences from Cape Town’s ‘Day Zero’ to now.

Later we catch up on the developments around persecuted Guapinol water defenders in Honduras from lawyer Edy Tábora, who is the director of the law firm Justicia para los Pueblos (Justice for the Peoples). 

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.

Russia’s war against Ukraine has taken centre stage in headlines and discussions over the last year, yet a variety of conflicts continue internationally, from Ethiopia to Palestine. 

Since this season of CIVICUS Voices looks particularly at protests, this episode looks at how to mobilise and campaign in the middle of conflict and war. 

We speak to Polina Kurakina from OVD-Info, an organisation tracking the rights to freedom of assembly and expression in Russia.

Oleksandra Matviichuk is a highly experienced Ukrainian human rights lawyer who leads the Centre for Civil Liberties.

Lastly, we hear what it is like to protest and mobilise in ongoing conflict from Nisreen Elsaim, who is a Sudanese youth climate activist.

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 global cost-of-living crisis has been met with a crackdown on the rights of working people in every region of the world, and this year has seen the violations of workers rights reach record highs.

We continue this season by looking at workers' rights protests and mobilisations from across the world that have brought about real change, with a special focus on migrants, who are among the most vulnerable of all workers.

In this episode, we speak to Lennon Ying Dah Wong, an activist fighting for the rights of migrant workers in Taiwan, where exploitative conditions are rampant.

We also talk to Eva Maria Jimenez Lamas from the Belgian trade union Confédération des Syndicats chrétiens (CSC). Eva assisted a group of undocumented domestic workers in making history when they lead their first ever strike in Brussels, Belgium. 

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.