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How should we describe the state of the global struggle for women’s rights? It is surely impossible to make a single overarching assessment– even as battles are won on one front, major challenges remain – or emerge - on another. Yet if it is hard to generalize about progress, we can at least note that conditions are scarcely favourable. To pick only three global trends - authoritarian rule, identity-based exclusion and economic instability - none of these help advance women’s freedoms. As International Women’s Day 2023 approaches, we invite three feminist leaders to assess this moment in their respective fields. For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Contact us at pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

On January 21, 2023, human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko was murdered in Swaziland. He was a remarkable advocate for rights and democracy, a commitment that brought him into direct confrontation with his country’s absolute ruler, King Mswati III over decades. His family, friends and fellow citizens are grief-stricken and the international human rights and justice community is outraged. Maseko had been due to spend a week with a group of human rights activists and leaders in our Symposium on Strength and Solidarity for Human Rights. We met to celebrate his work and decided to share this audio recording of the event. For a list of supplemental readings and additional information, please visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Send your ideas and feedback to pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

It is now more than a decade since Egypt’s January 25th Revolution, otherwise known simply as “Tahrir Square.” All over the world in 2011, people watched the footage from Cairo in amazement at the scale of the mobilization, the creation of community and a remarkable range of services in the square, and the eventual ejection of the Mubarak regime which opened a path to elections. But it was all over in less than three years when General Al-Sisi’s counter-coup restored military dictatorship. What has life been like for activists and rights defenders in the years since, and what is left of the passionate activism that powered the revolution? In 2011 Mohammed Lotfy had been working abroad for Amnesty International but he came home to help build a new society. Now the executive director of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, he sees, at first hand, the daily reality of those who made the revolution and, in his own family, the cost of defending rights in Egypt today. And in our Coda, a Nigerian activist tells us how Audre Lorde has transformed his approach. For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Contact us at pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

Two years ago, Nigerian environmental rights campaigner, Ken Henshaw, had never heard of black lesbian feminist, Audre Lorde or her lecture, The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House. But when someone gave him a copy of Lorde’s fiery take-down of white feminist academics for avoiding discomfort and hanging on to their privileged connection with the white patriarchy, Ken was transfixed. Could he apply the ‘Master’s Tools’ metaphor to his own activism? Had he really been challenging the oil companies and the government, or was he working within limits they prescribed? For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Contact us at pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

The United Nations, sponsor of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights stands as the most important protector of rights in the world today. Under the authority of its councils, its agencies and its convenings, standards are set, treaties are ratified and complaints are heard. But as much as we have seen vital progress in the definition and assertion of rights, that is only one side of the story. The other, darker truth is that, time and again, people in desperate need of protection are abandoned to the cruel bullying and violence of powerful actors -most often states that are members of the UN. Akila Radhakrishnan, is the director of the Global Justice Center which does a lot of work in the UN’s corridors, fighting for gender equality and justice. She spoke late last year with host Akwe Amosu about why civilians in places like Syria and Myanmar don’t get the same kind of attention as those in Ukraine. And in the Coda, a moving reflection on Seamus Heaney’s poem, Casualty, born of the troubles in Northern Ireland. For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Contact us at pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

This famous poem of the Northern Ireland Troubles tells the story of an event that followed Bloody Sunday, the day in 1972 when British soldiers shot dead 13 unarmed civilians in Derry as they were protesting internment without trial. Criminal defense lawyer Chris Stone reads the poem and reflects on its brilliance, and the profound impact it had on him. For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Contact us at pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

Building a protest movement massive enough to topple a president used to take years, even decades. The internet changed that, as we discovered over in the Arab Spring. In this episode someone who was at the heart of a mass mobilisation in his home country, Guatemala, explains how an almost accidental series of choices and connections in 2015 put him and a small group of others at the head of a movement that - under the slogan, Justicia Ya! - Justice Now! - forced the country’s president to resign. Gabriel Wer tells host Akwe Amosu of his initial bewilderment at what he and fellow organisers had unleashed, his determination to achieve its goals, and then the growing recognition that long-term change was going to need a different approach.  And in the Coda, a social justice activist in Hong Kong explains how rock climbing gives him a powerful metaphor for weathering defeat and nurturing resilience. For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Contact us at pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

When human rights and social justice activist Johnson Yeung wants a break, he exchanges Hong Kong’s forest of skyscrapers for the real thing, a nearby forest of trees and a rockface that he and fellow climbers can scale, finding trust in mutual reliance, the resilience to fall and recover, and - on reaching the top - a breathtaking view. For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Contact us at pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

Palestinian activist Issa Amro grew up studious and apolitical – until his university was permanently shuttered in 2003 by the Israeli military in response to the second intifada. The campaign he and others launched to get it reopened was successful but as the full reality of the Israeli Occupation struck home, he decided to commit to non-violent activism and has been organizing in his community ever since. Almost two decades on, a senior UN official has called 2022 the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since 2005. In this episode, Amro explains how he and others have, over the past two decades, built a resilient movement, focused especially on young people, to resist the violent seizure of Palestinian property by illegal settlers and harassment by Israeli security forces. And in the Coda, a Colombian human rights worker tells us how dancing Salsa lifts her spirits.  For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Contact us at pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

Vivian Newman Pont is a human rights advocate and researcher at Dejusticia in Colombia. The work exposes her and her colleagues to the impact of war and impunity and inevitably takes a toll. When things get too much, Vivian fires up some music and gets out on the dance floor. For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Contact us at pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

Strength & Solidarity returns December 8 with a fourth season of insightful interviews with human rights advocates and defenders. As always we’re hearing about the tools and tactics activists are choosing and using in these challenging times and asking what works, and why?  First up, Palestinian organizer and activist Issa Amro tells us how non-violence and the video camera are putting power in the hands of Palestinian communities and how young activists are being prepared to succeed as leaders in the resistance. From Guatemala, the story of how a massive social movement emerged almost by accident. And three women leaders from the US, Sudan and  the Philippines come into our studio to talk about the global backlash against women’s rights. And later in the season, we have episodes on rights and justice work in Colombia, Egypt, Nigeria and Israel - with more to come. Not to mention “The Coda” – a pause for reflection by human rights people about  how they find respite, solace and energy to do their work.  Join host Akwe Amosu and her guests on Thursday December 8.

Relative to other marginalised people, the disability community had to wait a long time for their rights to be globally asserted. But the adoption, 15 years ago, of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) marked a major step forward, from the language of charity and medical strategies to the language of rights. Now widely ratified, the Convention has had a remarkable effect: expanding protections and bringing together people from different corners of the disability movement to shift deeply entrenched assumptions about agency and capability. In a period when many have questioned whether investing in standard-setting is worthwhile -often arguing instead for a radical disruption of institutional approaches -the human rights framework seems successfully to have given agency to a community that badly needed it. Alberto Vasquez is a Peruvian lawyer with a history of activism around psychosocial disabilities in his own country and in the Latin American region. He reflects on both the solidarity and vibrant activism that emerged, and says even those under guardianship or coercion by mental health authorities are seeing the possibility of change. For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Contact us at pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

The spontaneous welcome given by Poland’s citizens to Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion drew applause all over the world. But there was another, less positive story –the open hostility shown to the black and brown, queer and Roma people also trying to cross to safety. Or worse, the brutal treatment being meted out by border guards to refugees from places like Syria and Afghanistan who were at that same moment trying to enter Poland from Belarus. Activists trying to support those who arrive are accustomed to expressions of xenophobia and racism and to politicians stigmatizing minorities to build their base. But could deeper empathy and more support be possible, with the right strategies? Reflections from Anna Alboth, of the Minority Rights Group on what does and doesn’t work to increase solidarity.  For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Contact us at pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

For minority communities it can be exhausting to sustain morale and self-confidence in the face of exclusion and stereotyping. Raheel Mohammed, director of Maslaha, a London-based organization dedicated to defending and supporting muslim communities, has been moved and inspired by the writings of Saidiya Hartman on waywardness –as a strategy to refuse oppression, even when you are a incarcerated. For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Contact us at pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

Eighteen months ago, Shaharzad Akbar was still leading Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission and gave this podcast an insight into what it meant to try and infuse rights into the laws, institutions and culture of a country that was a crossroads for conflict and competing foreign interests. She acknowledged that for many, the language of human rights felt like a foreign import but she believed citizens’ hopes and expectations of government had fundamentally changed in the past two decades. The US was planning to withdraw its forces and talks with the Taliban in Doha were under way. Akbar worried about their return to power might mean, especially for women’s rights. Fast forward to today, the Taliban is in charge and worst fears with regard to rights and freedoms have been confirmed. Shaharzad Akbar, now exiled, returns to reflect on whether the Taliban will be able to enforce its regressive authoritarian rule and what happens now to the struggle for rights.  For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Contact us at pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

Last month, Ferdinand Marcos Junior was elected president of the Philippines, thirty-six years after his father was chased from office by the People Power revolution in 1986.  For activists like Mary Jane Real, this is grim news, bringing back memories of brutal rule, torture and impunity. But an essay by Rebecca Solnit brings her a surprising insight. For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Contact us at pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) didn’t give much thought to its internal processes in its early years. It was focused on those whose rights were being abused, not on building an administrative paragon. But with the organization expanding amid the 2011 revolution, ad hoc informality no longer seemed viable or appropriate. The leadership began to put new systems in place, and a board, in order to strengthen EIPR’s operations for whatever opportunities and challenges lay ahead. For many in the human rights field, investing in what seems like bureaucracy can look perverse - a distraction from the mission. Veteran EIPR leader Gasser Abdel-Razek reflects on the pros and cons of the path EIPR chose, and its very personal significance on the day he found himself under interrogation. For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Contact us at pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

In this second part of our episode featuring Libyan human rights lawyer Elham Saudi, we get an up-close look at international mediation efforts to broker an agreement between rival political actors and establish a stable democratic government in Libya. As a civil society representative in the UN-convened Libya Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF), Elham has a ringside seat from which to observe the compromises being made to cobble together an agreement - and she’s not too impressed. For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Contact us at pod@strengthandsolidarity.org

With the fall of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 ,four decades of tyranny came to an end and Libya experienced an all too brief period of optimism–its own Arab Spring. But the hopes were overwritten by a lawless and violent competition for power and resources, egged on by foreign actorskeen to access the country’s mineral wealth.  If you were an advocate of justice and human rights in a democratic state of laws, where did that leave you? How could you advance your vision in such conditions? Human rights lawyer Elham Saudi was eventually forced into exile by hostile militias but she tells host Akwe Amosu how she and the rest of civil society are keeping the flame alive, albeit at great personal cost. And in the Coda, Guatemalan activist Gabriel Wer shares a haunting poem by Argentinian poet Juan Gelman on keeping faith with the country and culture that made you, even if you have to leave.  For a list of supplemental readings and additional information about this episode’s content, visit https://strengthandsolidarity.org/podcasts/ Contact us atpod@strengthandsolidarity.org

For the human rights defender forced to leave their home country to get away from threats of violence or detention, there is a strange life ahead –of dislocation and adaption to a new culture, while remaining umbilically connected to their place of origin. Guatemalan activist Gabriel Wer shares a poem by celebrated Argentinian poet Juan Gelman who lived much of his life in exile.