Freedom of Association
18 Articles

The Essential Role of ‘Civic Space’ in Safeguarding Electoral Integrity: How a Decision in Africa Can Reverberate
The landmark African Union case over an Ethiopian election provides a roadmap for safeguarding democracy in the face of authoritarianism.

Civil Society, Under Threat Worldwide, Needs a General Comment on the Right to Freedom of Association
Civil society and its allies need tools to push back against rising threats worldwide, and the U.N. Human Rights Committee can furnish an important one: a General Comment on the…

The US Can — and Must — Counter Russian Influence Undermining Kyrgyzstan’s Democratic Progress
The latest sign of backsliding is a draft "foreign agents" law modeled after one that gutted civil society in Russia.

Biden Prepares to Fete Modi Amid US Reports of India’s Rights Abuses, Repression
A White House state dinner courts a longshot security alliance, even as the administration's own reports document democratic backsliding.

Transnational Repression Increasingly Reaches Into the United States
In countering transnational repression, "[c]ivil litigation provides a pathway for holding ... authoritarian regimes directly accountable, not just their hired guns, if significant…

Israel’s West Bank Ordinance: The Latest Effort to Suppress Palestinian Civil Society
The new law will severely curtail academic, economic, and personal contacts between Palestinians and the world. It fits a larger pattern.

Counterterrorism Off the Rails: Israel’s Declaration of Palestinian Human Rights Groups as “Terrorist” Organizations
Law professors critically analyze Israel Defense Minister Benny Gantz's designation of six Palestinian human rights groups as “terrorist” organizations

Conscience Wars in France?
Culture wars is an expression that was first popularized in U.S. politics by sociologist James Hunter in the early 1990s. While France traditionally prides itself in refusing the…

Trump’s Executive Order on the ICC is Illegal, Not Just Shameful
Significant First Amendment concerns are raised by the administration's sanctions against the International Criminal Court and against those who support the ICC's work.

COVID-19 and the Shrinking Civic Space in Nigeria
With the same rapidity as its spread, COVID-19 seems to be taking over as the major driver of shrinking civic space in many parts of the world, displacing the popular buzzwords:…

How to Improve the Human Rights Committee Draft General Comment on Freedom of Assembly
Editor’s note from Ryan Goodman: Just Security is publishing a mini-forum on a significant document being drafted by the United Nations Human Rights Committee concerning the…

The Use of Regional Jurisprudence in UN Draft General Comment on the Freedom of Assembly
Editor’s note from Ryan Goodman: Just Security is publishing a mini-forum on a significant document being drafted by the United Nations Human Rights Committee concerning the…