The humanitarian implications of a backlash on rights

Attacks on civilians. Global anti-rights movements. Anti-democratic forces. Populism. Many believe that we are witnessing increasingly authoritarian rollbacks to democracy that are intimately connected to a global backlash on rights.

In oPT/Israel, Ukraine, Sudan and beyond, civilians are being targeted, and people are unable to flee. Globally, refugee rights are being eroded, with violent pushbacks and the criminalisation of those who assist. Protections under international law, including by the states that established them, are being dismantled. The rollback on women’s and gender rights can be seen from Afghanistan and Uganda to the US. Aid organisations always have to navigate difficult operating environments but as civic space shrinks, advocating and acting on injustice and its humanitarian consequences is increasingly difficult.

How much of this is new? And what are the implications for humanitarian action?

At the Overseas. Development Institute’s Humanitarian Poverty Group’s annual event, we will hear from a range of actors who have first-hand experience of advocacy and action on the intersection of rights, injustice and humanitarianism. We will discuss and debate the humanitarian consequences and the way forward.

7 December, 6.15-7.30pm, Overseas Development Institute

Speakers

Dr Dhananjayan (Danny) Sriskandarajah, CEO Oxfam GB

Hassan Akkad, British/Syrian writer, filmmaker and human rights activist

Fereshta Abbasi, Researcher, Human Rights Watch, Afghanistan

Dr Sultan Barakat, Director, Global Institute for Strategic Research and Professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University

Info: ODI