The Hong Kong High Court on November 5, 2026, sentenced Joshua Wong, a well-known democracy activist, to 10 years in prison on baseless national security charges. Two months of the sentence will run concurrently with his current national security sentence. Wong has been in custody since November 2020, when he was 24, and faces imprisonment until late 2036, when he will be 40.
“The harsh sentence on baseless charges against Joshua Wong is cruel and unjust,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Young people promoting social change are an asset for any vibrant society, but the Hong Kong government puts them behind bars.”
To keep Hong Kong society subdued, and to reduce the chance of an international outcry, the Hong Kong government appears to have adopted the tactic of stacking charges against influential pro-democracy leaders to ensure their prolonged detention, Human Rights Watch said. Other notable Hong Kong figures who have faced similar tactics include Jimmy Lai, founder of Apple Daily, and veteran democracy activists Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho.
The court sentenced Wong, 30, under the National Security Law for “conspiring to collude with foreign forces.” The authorities accused him of “conspiring” with the activist Nathan Law and other “unknown” individuals between 2016 and November 2020 to urge foreign governments to sanction Hong Kong and Chinese government officials as they advocated for Hong Kong’s “democratic self-determination.”
The prosecution relied heavily on the international lobbying and media advocacy that Wong and Demosisto, the political party Wong co-founded in 2016, carried out before the National Security Law took effect. Wong initiated online petitions, spoke to international media, and met with foreign officials to draw attention to human rights abuses in Hong Kong. He urged governments to sanction Chinese and Hong Kong officials responsible for abuses and to stop selling weapons to Hong Kong police that they use to carry out rights violations. [see also https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2026/10/19/five-human-rights-defenders-targeted-for-seeking-help-abroad/]
Wong had mostly stopped these activities before the National Security Law became effective. Demosisto disbanded on June 30, 2020, and Wong resigned from the group. However, the government quoted social media posts by Wong as ostensible evidence that his alleged “conspiracy” with Law to commit “foreign collusion” continued after the law took effect. In these posts, Wong said he “would not change his views” and that he would “continue to seek support from the international community” in his personal capacity, while Law and others abroad would continue their international advocacy.
The government also cited Wong’s subsequent opinion pieces and media interviews, though none directly called for sanctions, which the National Security Law specifically prohibits. It also cited his reposts of Law’s posts broadly calling for sanctions against Chinese officials and Hong Kong police.
Since Beijing imposed the National Security Law on Hong Kong in June 2020, Hong Kong authorities have used the new legal regime—along with existing laws—to rapidly dismantle civil society and detain, imprison, or force into exile hundreds of activists and government critics.
Wong has been in custody since November 2020, when he pleaded guilty to two charges of organizing and inciting an unauthorized assembly linked to the 2019 citywide protest movement. After that, he pleaded guilty to five more charges on separate occasions, including for violating an anti-mask law, participating in an unauthorized vigil for the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, and breaching a court ban to disclose a police officer’s personal information.
While serving these sentences, Wong was charged with two national security offenses, which carry far harsher penalties. In January 2021, Wong was charged with “conspiring to commit subversion” for participating in an unofficial democratic primary in 2020 and sentenced to another four years and eight months in prison.
Before Wong could complete these sentences, the authorities brought the “foreign collusion” charge against him in June 2025, ensuring that he would remain in prison.
Wong became one of Hong Kong’s best-known democracy activists as a teenager, after leading a massive 2012 protest against a government educational curriculum widely seen as political indoctrination. He became the global face of Hong Kong’s democracy movement during the 2014 Umbrella Movement and co-founded Demosisto with Law and others in 2016. The party disbanded on June 30, 2020, hours before the National Security Law came into effect.
On 10 September 2026 Freedom House launched the Ambassadors for Freedom program, a new global initiative bringing together a group of democracy advocates to champion solutions to the 20-year decline in global freedom. Carolina Barrero, Nazanin Boniadi, Anaïse Kanimba, Vladimir Kara-Murza, and Anna Kwok will serve as the inaugural ambassadors. Ambassadors will work in partnership with Freedom House to spotlight threats to freedom, engage policymakers and the public, and inspire a new generation to safeguard democracy.
Initial Freedom House Ambassadors
Carolina Barrero Barrero is a Cuban political leader, human rights defender, and political analyst. A prominent figure of Cuba’s 27N and San Isidro prodemocracy movements, her activism led to repeated arbitrary detention, surveillance, house arrest, and ultimately forced exile in 2022. She is president and executive director of Ciudadanía y Libertad, where she leads efforts to strengthen independent civil society, political participation, and democratic institutions in Cuba, and is a PhD Fellow at the University of Miami.
Nazanin Boniadi Boniadi is an Iranian-born actor, producer, and human rights advocate. She has partnered with charitable organizations since 2008 to campaign for the rights of disenfranchised populations across the world, with a focus on the unjust conviction and treatment of Iranian youth, women, and prisoners of conscience. She sits on the board of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran. As an actress, she has starred in dozens of television series and films.
Anaïse Kanimba Kanimba is a global development strategist, human rights activist, and freedom technology leader. She is a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, during which her father, Paul Rusesabagina, saved more than 1,200 people. Kanimba co-led the international campaign that secured her father’s release after he was forcibly rendered to Rwanda and illegally detained there. She is program director for freedom technology at the World Liberty Congress, founder of the Africa Bitcoin Institute, and a 2025 McCain Global Leader.
Vladimir Kara-Murza Kara-Murza is a Russian politician, author, and former political prisoner. He was twice poisoned, reportedly by Russian secret services, for his work securing sanctions against high-ranking Russian rights abusers through the Global Magnitsky Act. In 2022 he received a 25-year treason sentence for denouncing the invasion of Ukraine. He was freed in a 2024 prisoner exchange. He is vice president of the Free Russia Foundation, a contributor at The Washington Post, and is an advisor at major rights organizations.
Anna Kwok Kwok is a Washington, DC-based China policy strategist and well-known Hong Kong prodemocracy activist. In response to her work, in 2023, Hong Kong authorities issued a HK$1 million (US$129,000) bounty for information leading to her capture, and in 2026 they imprisoned her father based on fabricated charges. Kwok serves as a Technology and Human Rights Fellow at The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and chairs the board of the Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC).
In a Q&A on 16 April 2026 with Abdulhakim Idris, head of the Center for Uyghur Studies, Freedom Housediscusses his work exposing the Chinese Communist Party’s repression and how Chinese authorities have menaced him and his family in an attempt to prevent him from speaking out. Here some excerpts:
Abdulhakim Idris (Photo Credit: Center for Uyghur Studies)
The People’s Republic of China conducts the world’s most sophisticated and comprehensive campaign of transnational repression, targeting human rights defenders, journalists, students, artists, and members of religious and ethnic minorities. Uyghurs, an ethnic group from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, have fled repression in China for decades. Abroad, many members of the group face the threat of transnational repression via detention, unlawful deportation, rendition, coercion by proxy, surveillance, and digital harassment. Uyghur individuals are involved in over 20 percent of the incidents in Freedom House’s transnational repression database, which catalogues direct, physical cases around the world from 2014 to 2025.
Last month, Abdulhakim Idris, head of the Center for Uyghur Studies in Washington, DC, and a leading Uyghur scholar and advocate, was detained for nearly a day and subsequently expelled from Malaysia at the behest of Chinese authorities, preventing him from launching the Malay-language edition of his book about how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) pressures governments in the Islamic world to remain silent about its persecution of Uyghurs. As Idris explains, this act of transnational repression sets a dangerous precedent for every other American advocate, journalist, and researcher operating abroad. Below, Idris describes his work exposing CCP abuses, and how they sought to silence him—in Malaysia and elsewhere.
Freedom House: Could you describe your work as executive director of the Center for Uyghur Studies?
Abdulhakim Idris: As executive director of the Center for Uyghur Studies (CUS), I lead a mission at the intersection of human rights advocacy, academic research, and diplomatic engagement to address the crisis in East Turkistan (known formally as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region). By producing rigorous, evidence-based reports and briefing global lawmakers, I work to expose Chinese Communist Party narratives and ensure the international conversation on its persecution of Uyghurs remains rooted in scholarly data and cultural expertise. My work translates this research into action, raising awareness through media advocacy and high-level briefings to reach the audiences most capable of effectuating change. I also work to engage Muslim-majority countries where Chinese economic pressure often buys silence. By briefing religious leaders and civil society across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, I demonstrate that the persecution of Uyghurs is an assault on our shared faith and part of China’s war on religious beliefs.
My advocacy is deeply personal: 24 of my family members have been missing since 2017, including my mother, Habibehan Idris; my brother Abdurehim; my sister Buhedichehan; and all of my nieces and nephews. In August 2023, I learned about my father’s passing in Hotan seven months earlier in January 2023.
As a bridge between the diaspora and the international community, I provide the strategic recommendations and testimony needed to transform our personal data into global action.
How long have you been involved in advocacy on behalf of the Uyghur people?
I was born in Hotan, East Turkistan, in 1968. My journey began with a foundation in faith and scholarship; I studied Islamic Sciences and Arabic in underground madrasas in Hotan before leaving in 1986 to study at Al-Azhar University in Egypt. This background gave me a profound understanding of the religious identity that the CCP is currently attempting to erase.
In 1990, I became one of the first Uyghurs to seek asylum in Germany. Settling in Munich, I balanced my studies in Industrial Management with a mission to organize our people. I am one of the founders of the East Turkistan Union in Europe (1991), the very first Uyghur organization on the continent. Over the next two decades, I focused on building the institutional architecture of our struggle. I am proud to be one of the founders of both the World Uyghur Youth Congress (1996), where I served as chairman of the executive committee, and the World Uyghur Congress (2004), where I have held different leadership roles.
Since moving to the United States in 2009, I have continued this work in Washington, DC, serving on the board of the Uyghur American Association. In 2017, my wife, Rushan Abbas, and I cofounded Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU) to bring more urgent awareness to CCP abuses against Uyghurs.
In recent years, the nature of the struggle has changed. As the Chinese government intensified its repression campaign, our response needed to become more robust. This led me to establish the Center for Uyghur Studies, where I have combined advocacy with the intellectual and scholarly dimension necessary to challenge China’s influence, particularly in the Muslim-majority countries.
Why were you traveling to Malaysia? Can you describe what happened when you arrived?
We have been engaging in Uyghur advocacy in Malaysia since 2022, and since then, I have been there several times, including for a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
The CCP considers me one of the foremost experts on its influence in Muslim-majority countries. My book is now translated into Turkish, Arabic, Malay, and Bahasa Indonesia. It has been an eye-opener about Chinese infiltration into Muslim-majority countries. Following its publication, both my wife and I were subjected to coordinated death threats and digital harassment. When I traveled to Jakarta for the Indonesian launch of the book, the Chinese embassy mobilized local proxies to stage public protests, including the burning of my picture and copies of my book.
Our Malaysian partner planned this advocacy trip and invited me to join. We were well prepared with reports and planned to launch the Malay-language edition of my book alongside several new reports from the Center for Uyghur Studies. My arrival in Kuala Lumpur was on March 29, 2026, and my departure was scheduled for April 8, 2026.
I arrived in Kuala Lumpur on March 29 at 7:00 am local time. When I came to the immigration hall, a Malaysian immigration officer pulled me aside, took my passport, and brought me to his office. An officer introduced himself as a Royal Malaysia Police officer and said that I would be denied entry and be deported. Five hours into this conversation, they put me in a temporary detention center at the airport. [Note: US citizens are not required to apply for a visa for a business or tourism stay in Malaysia of less than 90 days.]
My US passport was seized, and I was held without justification for 21 hours in detention, given only one small meal and one small bottle of water, before being escorted by four police officers onto a deportation flight.
After approximately 70 hours of continuous travel and detention, I arrived safely back in the United States. Our partner in Kuala Lumpur confirmed to me that my denied entry was the result of pressure directly from Beijing.
This is not an isolated incident but a pattern of Chinese intimidation. Last year, I was similarly denied entry to Indonesia under pressure from the Chinese embassy in Jakarta, but that time, after intervention by the US government, I was able to secure entry. This time, despite the State Department and the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur escalating the matter to Malaysian immigration, Beijing prevailed. The escalation is alarming.
Beijing’s goal is to silence my research before it reaches Malay-speaking communities. My only “crime” is being a dissident from a community persecuted by the Chinese government and exposing China’s broader threats to humanity, freedom, and democracy. China has now successfully used a third country to detain and expel a US citizen. If this stands, it sets a dangerous precedent for every American advocate, journalist, and researcher operating abroad. This is a clear case of Chinese transnational repression, specifically targeting me as a US citizen.
Has anything like this happened before?
Yes. We held an advocacy trip to Indonesia between July 11, 2024, and July 20, 2024. Our partner in Indonesia organized the events and invited me. The trip involved multiple meetings, seminars, and roundtable discussions with key Indonesian stakeholders, including politicians, NGO leaders, and religious figures. In total, we visited and held activities in five cities, including Jakarta, Pontianak, Surabaya, Yogyakarta, and remotely in Medan.
There were several challenges we faced during this trip. The CCP propaganda campaign is now widespread across Indonesia, including among NGOs and social media platforms such as TikTok, X, and Facebook. The Chinese government’s extensive propaganda campaigns, including social media advertisements and influence on local leaders, have created a significant hurdle.
When we held our event in Pontianak, Indonesian immigration officials showed up, checked my visa, and told me I was not allowed to speak at events on a tourist visa and that I would need a C10 visa for that purpose. We then changed our approach: I gave all my presentations to our Indonesian partners, who then proceeded with the seminars. We could adapt because our Indonesian colleagues were trained and experienced on the Uyghur issue after two years of working together.
On a subsequent trip between April 26, 2025, and May 6, 2025 to Indonesia, I traveled on a speaker visa and was detained at the airport for three hours before being allowed to enter the country after the intervention of the US government.
In both cases, as in Malaysia, the pressure traced back to Beijing. The difference is that in Indonesia, I was eventually able to seek clarity and secure entry. In Malaysia, I was not.
Have you ever experienced any other forms of transnational repression, such as threats, harassment, or coercion of your family?
Transnational repression is not an abstract concept for me. It is a painful, daily reality that has fundamentally reshaped my family’s life. The Chinese government frequently uses the safety and freedom of our loved ones back home as leverage to silence our advocacy in the West. Since repression of Uyghurs has intensified deeply since 2017, I have lost all contact with my relatives in Hotan. In Uyghur culture, family is everything. Being severed from one’s roots is a form of psychological warfare.
In August 2023, I received a devastating message from an anonymous source. I was informed that my father, Abdulkarim Zikrullah Idris, had passed away seven months earlier, in January 2023, in our hometown of Hotan. Because the CCP has cut all lines of communication between the diaspora and our families in East Turkistan, I was not able to be with him, speak to him, or even know he was gone when it happened. The last time I heard my father’s voice was in April 2017. Shortly after that phone call, the mass detentions began, and contact was severed entirely. For six years, I lived with the agonizing uncertainty of not knowing if he was safe, if he was in a camp, or if he was even alive.
This is a form of psychological torture that hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs in the diaspora face every day. Because of the total lack of transparency in the region, the exact circumstances of his death remain unclear. We do not know if he had access to medical care, or if the stress of the ongoing persecution contributed to his passing. What we do know is that he died in a police-state environment where his children were unable to fulfill their final duties to him.
My family was not the only one targeted. In September 2018, just six days after my wife Rushan Abbas spoke publicly about my families’ disappearance while highlighting the Chinese government’s mass detention of Uyghurs, her sister Dr. Gulshan Abbas was forcibly disappeared from her home in Urumqi. The spokesperson of China’s Foreign Ministry officially confirmed on December 31, 2020, that she had been sentenced to 20 years in prison on baseless charges in connection with terrorism. Dr. Gulshan Abbas was a retired medical doctor who had never been involved in politics. Her imprisonment remains an act of transnational repression, intended to terrorize our family, silence us, and force us to stop advocating for our people.
The CCP’s tactics of transnational repression have taken other forms as well. After I gave testimony before the Uyghur Tribunal in London in 2021, which concluded that China was committing crimes against humanity against the Uyghur people, Chinese state television broadcast my photograph and denounced me for testifying. This was meant to intimidate me publicly and to warn others of the consequences of speaking the truth. Before the 2024 General Assembly of the World Uyghur Congress in Sarajevo, my wife and I received an online video message containing direct death threats. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) contacted me and confirmed they were aware of the threat.
We have become targets of dehumanization, smear campaigns, character assassination, and threats against our lives. Even outside China, we live under constant fear and intimidation. Through these tactics, the Chinese government seeks not only to punish individuals but to spread fear across entire families and communities.
Military coups, violence against peaceful protesters, and efforts to weaken constitutional safeguards in 2025 drove the 20th consecutive year of decline in global freedom, according to a new report released on 19 March by Freedom House. The report, Freedom in the World 2026: The Growing Shadow of Autocracy, found that 54 countries experienced deterioration in their political rights and civil liberties, while only 35 registered improvements. Today just 21 percent of the world’s people live in countries rated Free, down from 46 percent two decades ago.
“Even as 2026 has brought new opportunities for those living under authoritarian rule from Venezuela to Iran, the last 20 years have been a dark period for global freedom,” said Jamie Fly, chief executive officer of Freedom House. “Armed conflict, coups, attacks on democratic institutions, and crackdowns on rights by authoritarians have now resulted in two full decades of decline. Those who still enjoy the blessings of freedom must do more to counter authoritarianism and provide more effective support for the democratic aspirations of people standing up to repression around the world, or this persistent decline will continue.”
In addition to deepening repression among authoritarian regimes, the past year featured a chequered performance among the world’s democracies. Of the 88 countries rated Free, the United States experienced the sharpest decline, with a drop of 3 points to a score of 81 on the report’s 100-point scale; it was matched in this group only by a decline in Bulgaria (−3), closely followed by Italy (−2). Worsening gridlock in Congress and escalating assertions of unilateral executive authority—combined with a multiyear rise in threats and reprisals for nonviolent speech, and a weakening of anti-corruption safeguards—brought the US score to its lowest level since Freedom in the World began publishing 0–100 scores in 2002. The United States’ decline for 2025 contributed to a 12-point erosion over the past two decades, under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Key report findings:
Global freedom declined for the 20th consecutive year in 2025. A total of 54 countries experienced deterioration in their political rights and civil liberties during the year, while only 35 countries registered improvements.
Largest increases and best overall scores: On Freedom in the World’s 100-point scale for political rights and civil liberties, Syria (+5), Sri Lanka (+5), Bolivia (+4), and Gabon (+4) recorded the largest gains for 2025. The best overall country scores were those of Finland (100), Sweden (99), Norway (99), and New Zealand (99).
Largest declines and worst overall scores: Guinea-Bissau (−8), Tanzania (−7), Burkina Faso, (−5), Madagascar (−5), and El Salvador (−5) had the largest one-year score declines.The countries with the worst overall scores were South Sudan (0), Sudan (1), and Turkmenistan (1).
Status changes: Three countries—Bolivia, Fiji, and Malawi—improved from Partly Free to Free status thanks to competitive elections, growing judicial independence, and the strengthening of the rule of law.
Deepening and persistent authoritarian repression: Conditions for freedom continued to deteriorate in Iran in 2025, with authorities arresting more than 21,000 people as part of a crackdown on alleged espionage and collaboration following the regime’s 12-day war with Israel in June, and expelling some 1.8 million Afghan migrants and refugees without regard for their basic rights. The country’s score fell by 1 point to 10 out of 100. The scores for Russia and China remained unchanged at 12 and 9, respectively, but Russian authorities took further steps to suppress antiwar speech and independent journalism, while Chinese officials cracked down on small but multiplying protests.
Although the scores for many rights and liberties deteriorated over the last two decades, media freedom, freedom of personal expression, and due process have suffered the heaviest impacts. Coups, armed conflicts, attacks on democratic institutions by elected leaders, and intensified repression by authoritarian regimes have been the main drivers of global decline during this 20-year period.
Since 2005, the group of countries with Partly Free status has shrunk substantially. Of the 59 countries that were rated Partly Free as of 2005, a total of 19 have dropped to Not Free, swelling the ranks of the world’s autocracies, whereas just 9 have improved to Free.
Most democracies remain resilient in the face of daunting challenges. Despite internal pressures and threats from foreign powers, democracies continue to demonstrate that their domestic political systems are responsive and capable of course correction. Of the 87 countries rated Free in 2005, a total of 76—more than 85 percent—have remained Free throughout the two-decade period of global decline.
The event “Tackling the protection gap: Host States’ responsibility to prevent and respond to transnational repression” will bring together defenders and UN experts to discuss the international human rights law obligations of States in respect of transnational repression against individuals and groups within their territory, as well as the strengthening of international standards, and gaps arising from shortcomings in their implementation domestically.
Location: Geneva, Switzerland. Date: 09 March 2026. Palais des Nations, Room VIII. Time: 2:00PM – 3:00PM CET and livestreamed on ISHR’s YouTube channel.!
Research from international organisations, NGOs and academics shows that transnational repression (TNR) – acts by States and their proxies to deter, silence or punish dissent, criticism or advocacy outside their territory – is affecting a growing array of individuals and groups worldwide.[1] With the emergence of new surveillance and communication technologies, many actors have found new avenues to silence and punish critics and opponents. The most common targets have been exiled human rights defenders and political activists, but today broader groups such as journalists, lawyers, artists, academics and ordinary members of diaspora communities are frequently targeted. See e.g.
The immediate effect of TNR is the violation of, or constraint on the exercise of, fundamental human rights. States have obligations towards those subject to such violations taking effect within their territory. These obligations have long been recognised, but have not yet been the subject of focused discussion in relation to TNR, leaving the scope and nature of the duties of host States unclear.
This event will bring together defenders and UN experts to discuss the international human rights law obligations of States in respect of transnational repression against individuals and groups within their territory, as well as the strengthening of international standards, and gaps arising from shortcomings in their implementation domestically.
Speakers:
Sayed Ahmed al-Wadaei, Director of Advocacy, Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD)
Birgit Kainz-Labbe, Coordinator of Civic Space Unit, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Ben Saul, UN Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights
Hélène Tigroudja, Human Rights Committee, Vice-Chair
Moderator: Raphael Viana David, International Service for Human Rights
This event is organised by ISHR and co-hosted with Human Rights Watch, Human Rights House Foundation and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).
Repressive regimes throughout the world deploy the machinery of the state to silence criticism and dissent. It is therefore hardly surprising that artists—whose creative work can expose, ridicule, and condemn in emotive and powerful ways—are common targets of political persecution. Over the past few years, there have been crackdowns on artists and performers in Russia, Belarus, Cuba, Azerbaijan, Egypt, China, and Venezuela, among other countries. The following artists dared to use their creative expression to challenge powerful systems, and have been punished with political imprisonment. From: Political Prisoners Watch February 19, 2026
Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is a Cuban artist and activist whose evocative performance art led to government harassment and numerous periods of detention. After the Cuban government enacted Decree 348 in 2018, which required artists to obtain advance approval for even private performances, he cofounded the San Isidro Movement to protest the increasing censorship of free expression. On July 11, 2021—the start of the historic J11 protests—he was arrested and has been detained ever since. In June 2022, he was sentenced to five years in prison for contempt, public disorder, and insulting symbols of the homeland, and remains in prison in Cuba. [https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2024/09/19/the-rafto-prize-2024-to-cuban-artivist-luis-manuel-otero-alcantara/]
Maykel Osorbo Castillo Pérez is a Cuban musician who cofounded the San Isidro Movement with Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. Due to his activism and vocal opposition to the Cuban regime, he was subjected to systemic harassment, including being arrested 121 times in a five-month period. He cowrote the 2021 song Patria y Vida(Homeland and Life), which inspired thousands to demonstrate against Cuba’s repressive regime and won two Latin Grammys. He was not able to accept the awards, however—in May 2021, he was arrested, forcibly disappeared for 14 days, and eventually sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of contempt, public disorder, and defamation of institutions and organizations, heroes, and martyrs.
Gao Brothers, The Utopia of the 20 Minute Embrace (2000), modified image via Wikimedia Commons, used under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Gao Zhen is a Chinese artist and US permanent resident who was detained while visiting family in China in August 2024. Avant-garde works by Gao and his brother Gao Qiang—known together as the Gao Brothers—include huge, mirror-like sculptures and other works critiquing Mao Zedong and China’s Cultural Revolution. Authorities allege that Gao committed the offense of “insulting or defaming heroes and martyrs,” though the art in question had been created years before the Law on the Protection of Heroes and Martyrs was enacted. Gao’s wife Zhao Yaliang has been prohibited from leaving China, and she and their young son have remained there since his detention. [https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cddqpr7z74yo]
Galal El-Behairy is an Egyptian poet and singer/songwriter who has faced severe retaliation for his artistic work. He wrote the lyrics for the guitar-driven protest song Balaha, which mocked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the country’s corrupt establishment. Five days after its release in February 2018, he was arrested by the National Security Police and disappeared for a week. In July 2018, he was sentenced to three years in prison by a military court for allegedly spreading false news and rumors and insulting the Egyptian army in his poetry book The Finest Women on Earth. Although his sentence expired in 2021, he was not released, and he is now facing additional charges including disseminating fake news and joining and aiding a terrorist organization.
Freedom House announced the appointment of Jamie Fly as its Chief Executive Officer, effective 2 February, 2026.
“Jamie Fly is a transformational leader ready to advance Freedom House’s vision of a world where all are free. He has stepped forward at a consequential moment as Freedom House pivots toward a private- and public-sector funding model, while growing existing and attracting new investors in freedom and democracy. This is particularly important as our flagship Freedom in the World report has documented nearly 20 years of democratic decline and as authoritarian leaders threaten fundamental freedoms and security around the world. Jamie brings deep global experience, bipartisan credibility, and a demonstrated ability to lead complex organizations under pressure. His leadership marks the start of a new chapter in Freedom House’s fight to expand and defend freedom around the world and to champion democratic values,” said Norman Willox, chair of the Freedom House Board of Trustees.
Fly has decades of experience in government, civil society, and the private sector. He has served as President and CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and held senior positions on the US National Security Council staff, at the Department of Defense, on Capitol Hill, and at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Most recently, he served as Senior Counselor at Palantir Technologies, where he supported efforts to defend Ukrainian democracy from Moscow’s illegal, full-scale military invasion. He is a recipient of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service and the Czech Foreign Ministry’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to Diplomacy.
“I am excited and honored to join Freedom House at this critical moment for democracy and global freedom as the organization celebrates its 85th anniversary this year in the midst of significant change. Additionally, I would like to thank Norm Willox, Freedom House’s board, and its talented leadership team and staff for their tremendous efforts, resilience, and accomplishments in the face of great challenges and opportunities,” said Fly.
Freedom House is the oldest American organization devoted to the support and defense of democracy and freedom around the world. It was formally established in 1941 to promote American involvement in World War II and the fight against fascism. Lauded for its nonpartisan approach, it has grown into the world’s premier institution for supporting the democratic aspirations of societies around the world through its globally recognized convening power, coalition building, advocacy, independent research, and emergency support to human rights defenders.
The New Indian Express of 22 March 2024 reports (based on Al Jazeera) that Prime Minister Narendra Modi government has approached a major Indian think tank to develop its own democracy ratings index that could help it counter recent downgrades in rankings issued by international groups that New Delhi fears could affect the country’s credit rating. The Observer Research Foundation (ORF), which works closely with the Indian government on multiple initiatives, is preparing the ratings framework,
On June 2023, The Guardian reported that the Indian government has been secretly working to keep its reputation as the “world’s largest democracy” alive after being called out by researchers for serious democratic backsliding under the nationalist rule of the Narendra Modi government, according to internal reports seen by The Guardian.
Despite publicly dismissing several global rankings that suggest the country is on a dangerous downward trajectory, officials from government ministries have been quietly assigned to monitor India’s performance, minutes from meetings show, The Guardian said. Al Jazeera revealed that the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), which works closely with the Indian government on multiple initiatives, is preparing the ratings framework. The new rankings system could be released soon, an official was quoted as saying.
Global human rights NGO Amnesty International has continued to highlight the erosion of civil rights and religious freedom under the Narendra Modi regime.
Similarly, Human Rights Watch has also continued to highlight the crackdown on civil society and media under the Modi government citing persecution of activists, journalists, protesters and critics on fabricated counterterrorism and hate speech laws. The vilification of Muslims and other minorities by some BJP leaders and police inaction against government supporters who commit violence are also among HRW’s concerns in India.
Notably, the ‘Democracy Index’, prepared by The Economist Group’s Economist Intelligence Unit, had downgraded India to a “flawed democracy” in its 2022 report due to the serious backsliding of democratic freedom under the Modi government.
ISHR and Freedom House hosted a group of young defenders from the diaspora for a training on UN human rights mechanisms and joint advocacy meetings in Geneva.
Eight activists working on Uyghur, Tibetan and Hong Kong rights across six countries, including Canada, Germany, India, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States, participated in the United Nations Advocacy Training (UNAT) program to learn and strategise together on ways to hold the Chinese government accountable for its human rights violations at the international level.
Why a training for youth diaspora activists?
Young activists play a critical role in diaspora movements to address and counter the Chinese government’s persecution of peoples from the Uyghur region, Tibet, and Hong Kong. When capacity building and support are available to them, they can meaningfully engage their host governments and international institutions, like the UN, to hold the Chinese government accountable for its ongoing abuses against their communities inside the People’s Republic of China, and acts of transnational repression outside Chinese borders. Unfortunately, youth diaspora activists don’t have many opportunities to convene and collaborate in those international spaces.
Working together as allies and partners, these groups can help increase the confidence in their efforts and improve impact and sustainability. Opportunities to network, train together, and work on joint advocacy efforts will help individual diaspora groups communicate and coordinate more effectively amongst themselves and with other relevant local and international groups to amplify and sustain pressure on the Chinese government for meaningful human rights change.
Aged between 19 and 28 years old, this was the first time that young activists from these communities came together in Geneva to work on cross-cutting community issues and build solidarity. Participants are engaged in rights advocacy through their work with established groups like the Hong Kong Democracy Council, Free Uyghur Now, and the Uyghur Human Rights Project or have founded impactful youth led organisations in their host countries, such as Students for a Free Tibet, Harvard College Students for Uyghur Solidarity, and Uyghur Youth Initiative. They are working toward better visibility and accountability towards violations outlined in the UN’s Xinjiang report published last August 2022, including the curtailment of free assembly and expression, mass surveillance, forced labour, and cultural and religious persecution.
During the interactive training programme, participants engaged with one another through peer check-in sessions, with human rights experts and advocates through live Q&As, discussions on the Human Rights Council, Special Procedures, Treaty Bodies and the Universal Periodic Review, and considered how to engage in advocacy activities at the UN in order to effect change for their communities.
The in-person training was designed to coincide with the 54th Session of the Human Rights Council so that the participants could attend the United Nations for the first time in their careers. As well as receiving additional advocacy training modules on all the UN human rights mechanisms from a range of experts, participants had the opportunity to build networks in Geneva and around the world, engage in meetings with UN member States and UN staff, and produce a powerful solidarity video statement which summarises their call to action to the UN States members.
All of the participants expressed they were satisfied with the training and increased their skills and networks to engage in advocacy at the UN. Freedom House and ISHR will continue to support these participants as they develop joint advocacy initiatives and build solidarity among their communities.
Participants in front of the flags of UN Member States, at UN Office, Geneva
A recent case study by Freedom House focuses on programming that offers holistic protection, support, and services, tailored to the needs of human rights defenders in their host country. This case study focused on the most current wave of migration of HRDs and CSOs who were forced to flee after anti-government protests in April 2018.
The Nicaraguan government continues to violate freedoms of expression, assembly and information and thwart the work of HRDs, including journalists and CSOs. Ortega-Murillo’s recent actions against potential presidential candidates and opposition figures demonstrate that the country will continue to see an outpouring of critics, activists, and HRDs to Costa Rica, among other countries. Nicaraguans continue to flee based on the attacks and harassment they face as HRDs and members of CSOs that champion democracy and human rights. See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2022/02/21/nicaragua-death-in-detention-and-sham-trial/
Of those 20 Nicaraguan HRDs who were surveyed, almost 90% stated that harassment and surveillance was a primary reason for leaving Nicaragua, followed by violence (65%) and threats (50%). Costa Rica provides comparatively ample protection for migrants, and recently launched a new asylum category for those fleeing from authoritarian regimes in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua. The flow of migration since 2018 has persisted until March 2020 when the border shut due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, migrant flows have begun to increase in recent months. However, Costa Rica is struggling to recover economically from the pandemic, particularly within the tourist, service, and commercial industries where most migrants and refugees find work. Most Nicaraguan refugees find themselves in a precarious economic situation, unable to find steady work, forcing many to resort to informal work with low salaries. HRDs are often not recognized as having different needs or characteristics from the larger refugee population, either by organizations or the Costa Rican population in general. Even for those who continue to work in human rights describe their ability to continue work is difficult, and many express experiencing severe trauma as an exile, with remorse for not being able to stay and remain fighting for human rights at home. [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2021/12/24/vilma-nunez-human-rights-defender-who-stays-in-nicaragua/] However, many Nicaraguan HRDs try to carry out their work by investigating the laws and procedures in Costa Rica, accompanying their compatriots in their efforts, sharing knowledge, and giving advice. There are support and protection options for HRDs and CSOs in exile in Costa Rica, including a network of organizations and institutions facilitated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that provide access to vital services.
All available support and protection options for Nicaraguan HRDs are operating at full capacity and cannot keep pace with the growing demand. We believe that it is necessary to seek support and accompaniment mechanisms for HRDs that facilitate their subsistence and enhance the implementation of their work to defend the human rights of exiles and other Nicaraguan migrants who lack mechanisms for complaint and demand for their rights in Costa Rica.
