Mandela Day: Global activist persecutions show shocking growth

As we mark Nelson Mandela Day on 18 July and #StandAsMyWitness campaign anniversary, the number of countries abusing laws to harass and put activists behind bars has nearly doubled in five years. At least 66 countries prosecuted activists last year, up from 36 in 2019, according to the CIVICUS Monitor. In 2023, at least 63 countries detained human rights defenders (HRDs), up from 38 five years ago.  

The jarring growth of repression comes as a stark contrast to the vision of President Mandela. #StandAsMyWitness, launched on Nelson Mandela Day four years ago, calls for the release of leading global human rights defenders who languish behind bars for speaking truth to power.  

Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora is now added as the 14th activist in the campaign. “As we add José Rubén Zamora to the #StandAsMyWitness campaign, we grow ever concerned that the world is becoming a more dangerous place for human rights defenders.

He is a courageous journalist who has dedicated his life to exposing corruption and defending human rights in Guatemala,” said Isabel Rosales, Latin America advocacy officer at CIVICUS. Zamora has been languishing behind bars for two years and the newspaper he founded, el Periódico, was shut down. 

Earlier this week, two #StandAsMyWitness Eswatini activists Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube were brutally sentenced to 68 years of collective imprisonment.

The two pro-democracy parliamentarians were convicted for demanding democratic reforms.  Eswatini is an absolute monarchy where political parties are banned from elections and activists face jail, torture, and death for demanding their rights.   

The 14 human rights defenders featured in the campaign represent a wave of persecution sweeping against civic freedoms and human rights around the world. Abuse of law for the prosecution of activists is ranked among the top ten rights violations according to CIVICUS Monitor.  

Their stories are no different from many other activists who were silenced for standing up for human rights and justice. Among others still languishing behind bars are #StandAsMyWitness icons:  

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, who has received a total of 31 years of prison sentence for standing up for women’s empowerment and promoting the abolition of the death penalty in Iran.

Hong Kong Pro-democracy activist Chow Hang-Tung, who was arrested and detained on June 4, 2021, for publishing two social media posts calling on the public to join the peaceful vigil for the 1989 Tiananmen massacre of civilians and protesters in Beijing. 

Khurram Parvez, voted one of the 100 most influential people by Time magazine in 2022, has dedicated his life to nonviolence in one of the most militarized regions in the world. He remains in jail under charges of terrorism and conspiracy in India.   

This clampdown on defenders paints a bleak picture, with only two percent of the global population living in countries with open civic spaces. A staggering 72% of people in the world lived in authoritarian regimes in 2023.

CIVICUS finds a discernible rise in the closure of civic spaces around the world, with the highest number of people living in closed countries since 2019. 

As the world honors President Mandela who spent 27 years in jail, thousands of human rights defenders are in prison convicted in unfair trials and on trumped-up charges.  

#StandAsMyWitness urges people to call for an end to the imprisonment and harassment of human rights defenders worldwide. To date, it has helped the release of 30 defenders. It invites people around the world to share the activists’ stories and demand their release.  

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