Civicus: World Alliance for Citizen Participation announces First `Global Day of Citizen Action’ to be held on Saturday 7 June 4 June 2014 - More than 20 countries around the world will participate in the first ever Global Day of Citizen Action’ on Saturday 7 June as part of a campaign to raise awareness about threats to freedom of expression, association and assembly. “The Global Day of Citizen Action’ will allow people all around the world to tell us what they think about their rights to speak out, organise and take action,” said Zubair Sayed, Head of Communication at CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance. “At the moment we have around 40 events in more than 20 countries and many people are still signing up. The events will engage thousands of people and will have a strong visual and social media element, so we’re quite excited about them. For those who haven’t already, there’s still time to host events or sign up to attend, and on the day people will also be able to participate online,” Sayed said. The Global Day of Citizen Action forms part of a public awareness campaign that CIVICUS is organising called BE THE CHANGE which aims to create awareness about `civic space’. Civic space exists when individuals and organisations have the freedom to speak out, organise and take action. In other words: the rights to free expression, association and assembly; rights that are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. “In many parts of the world civic space is under threat, and as citizens of the world, we need to stand together and raise awareness about this infringement on what are fundamental human rights,” said Sayed. During the last few years, many countries have passed laws that restrict citizen freedoms or make operations or financing for civil society groups difficult; in some cases they’ve increased the surveillance of ordinary citizens, activists and civil society organisations; and in others there’s been direct repression and arrests. Civil society also faces threats from non-state actors, including powerful corporate entities, extremist right-wing and fundamentalist groups. So far events are already scheduled in Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Congo, Finland, The Gambia, Georgia, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Palestine, Pakistan, Peru, Rwanda, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, South Sudan, Switzerland, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe - with more joining everyday. There is still time to create an event or sign-up to attend one. Doing so is easy and can be done by visiting civicus.org/bethechange/gdca/. For those who can’t physically attend events, they can still make their voices heard by visiting the site on the day and `voting’ on what they think about their rights in their country. And, if you’re on Twitter, you can follow proceedings by searching for posts with the hashtag #BeTheChange. For details of events please visit the map on this page: civicus.org/bethechange/gdca/ If you would like to get in touch with local event organisers please email [email protected] with details of which event organisers you would like to make contact with.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Jun 2014 17:44:37 +0000
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