[liberationtech] Support for Civil Society UN resolution?

[Niels ten Oever]

Dear colleagues,

We are writing to seek your organisation's signature for a joint civil
society letter
https://crm.ishr.ch/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=379&qid=47521
defending a strong Human Rights Council resolution on civil society
space. The letter is attached.

As you may be aware, Chile, Ireland, Japan, Sierra Leone, & Tunisia have
proposed a draft resolution on protecting and promoting civil society
space at the 32nd Session of the UN Human Rights Council. It was
developed through broad consultation with States and civil society and
in the past was adopted by consensus.
 The draft resolution is based on the UN High Commissioner's report on
civil society space
https://crm.ishr.ch/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=381&qid=47521
, and highlights the important role civil society actors play in
contributing to peace and security, human rights and sustainable
development. It also includes a number of positive measures on promoting
and protecting civic space and requests OHCHR to develop a report on the
participation of civil society across the UN and regional and
international organisations.

The letter will be updated tomorrow lunchtime, to react to an expected
attack on the resolution from some states, aimed at weakening the
resolution. Advanced sign-on ensures a swift and collective voice
against this attack on the resolution, and in support of the UN taking
action to defend civil society space.

We invite you to sign on using this link, provided by ISHR, which has
initiated this letter with ARTICLE19:
https://crm.ishr.ch/en/civicrm/event/register?reset=1&id=79 (please do
not reply to this email to sign, but use the link only).

We intend to *circulate a final letter to signatory organisatons by 4 PM
on 28 June 2016*. Organisations that sign on now, which we encourage,
will have a period of 2 hours to opt-out once the letter is finalised.
We intend to send the letter to States in the evening of Tuesday, 28
June.  For any questions, contact Andrew at Article 19
(andrew at article19.org) or Michael at ISHR (m.ineichen at ishr.ch).

Thank you and kind regards,


Niels
-- 
Niels ten Oever
Head of Digital

Article 19
www.article19.org

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