Civil Society, ‘Traditional Values’ and LGBT Resistance to Heteronormative Rights Hegemony: Analysis of the UN Universal Periodic Review in the Russian Federation

Journal of South Asian Development

2022

This study analyses state and civil society organizations’ (CSOs) perspectives on the contemporary situation of human rights defenders (HRD) in South Asia using submissions to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the United Nations five-yearly monitoring process. The governments’ UPR discourse shows how their engagement is characterized by performativity and legitimation. They appear to embrace the promotion of HRDs’ rights in a way that advances governments’ political legitimacy on the international stage. Instead, analysis of CSOs’ UPR discourse reveals that HRDs face a raft of rights violations, including threats, violence and murder. Their work is being curtailed by increasing state restrictions on freedom of association and expression. The malaise is compounded by impunity for offenders, corrupt practices and governments’ failure to respond to earlier UPR recommendations. The analysis shows a strong gendered dimension to HRD oppression with women HRDs particularly vulnerable to all types of violation. These findings underline the extension to South Asia of what international analysis elsewhere has dubbed a ‘counter-associational revolution’, or the rise, spread and contagion of restrictive legislation. This threat to democracy in the region shows that key reforms are urgently required, including measures to ensure the justiciability of the UN Declaration on HRD.

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shrinking Civil Space? Exploring State and Civil Society Perspectives on the Contemporary Situation of Human Rights Defenders in South Asia

Journal of South Asian Development

2022

“…In terms of politics and civil liberties, the situation in today’s Cambodia is a troubling one that reflects authoritarian governing practices elsewhere in Asia and beyond (Chaney, 2018, 2019). According to one Democracy Index, the country is ranked a lowly 130 out of 167 (Economist Intelligence Unit, 2020: 12).…”

Section: Research Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…and] it raises pertinent issues relating to competing cultural worldviews that are important for policy-makers to consider at both national and international levels. (King, 2020: 375) In terms of politics and civil liberties, the situation in today's Cambodia is a troubling one that reflects authoritarian governing practices elsewhere in Asia and beyond (Chaney, 2018(Chaney, , 2019. According to one Democracy Index, the country is ranked a lowly 130 out of 167 (Economist Intelligence Unit, 2020: 12).…”

Section: Research Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Civil Society, Rights and Welfare: Exploring the Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Cambodia

Journal of Asian and African Studies

2021

Self Cite

This study examines Cambodia’s implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Corpus analysis of civil society organisations’ submissions to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review reveals a raft of CRC violations, including sexual abuse, trafficking and child labour. This is due to political and bureaucratic failings. The wider significance of this lies in underlining how the disjuncture between state and civil society underpins ongoing violations. Future progress depends on strengthened mobilisation yet increasing repression of civil society makes this unlikely. Accordingly, the prospects are bleak with children in Cambodia continuing to suffer widespread rights violations.

“…'Restrictions on civil society' was the second-most prominent pathology in the discourse (17.1% of quasi-sentences). It can be seen as part of a wider international trend as governments have used legal and coercive means to undermine the independence of civil society (e.g., Chaney, 2018aChaney, , 2018bJefferson & Jensen, 2009;Thornton, 2013). One of the key instruments in the current government clamp down on civil society is Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology Act (2006), which has been frequently used to detain and silence dissidents on flimsy grounds.…”

Section: Restrictions On Civil Societymentioning

confidence: 99%

Civil society and the contemporary threat to religious freedom in Bangladesh

Journal of Civil Society

Sahoo

2020

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Against the international backdrop of rising religious tensions, this article explores contemporary civil society views on religious freedom in Bangladesh. It uses critical frame analysis of the corpus of civil society organizations' (CSOs) submissions to the United Nations' third cycle Universal Periodic Review (UPR), 2013-18. It provides a timely assessment of Bangladesh's fulfilment of international obligations on religious freedom, and shows how the politicization of religion and the resultant conflict between 'secularism' and 'extremism' have been fuelling inter-communal tensions and religious intolerance. In particular, CSOs' UPR submissions present powerful accounts of the principal human rights pathology affecting the country today, religious-based violence. This is accompanied by a narrative of police malpractice, judicial failings, discrimination, oppression and incitement. A further key finding is 'situated knowledge' or first-hand accounts of legal restrictions and government repression of civil society organizations. Consonant with the classical work of liberal theorists, we argue that unprecedented importance now attaches to safeguarding civil society criticality in order to defend religious freedom and uphold human rights in the Republic.