Regan Ralph Discusses Escalating Attacks on Human Rights Activism

Regan Ralph '91, president and CEO of the Fund for Global Human Rights, began her April 19 talk at the Schell Center with the story of Hossam Baghat. Baghat is an investigative journalist who founded the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR). In November 2015, Baghat was arrested and interrogated after he published reports that implicated a group of Egyptian military officials in planning a coup with the Muslim Brotherhood. Under intense international pressure, the Egyptian government released him, but forbade him to travel and froze his assets. Moreover, Baghat and EIPR are now facing accusations of accepting foreign funding to pursue activities against national interests.

Baghat and EIPR, Ralph said, are among the thousands of human rights defenders and organizations suffering from the rise of authoritarianism and crackdown on civil society globally. To Ralph, these challenges are different from the risks human rights defenders are accustomed to: rather than target activists one at a time, now governments are “playing a subtler game” and are targeting the entire civil society sector by limiting rights to assembly, requiring that NGOs submit organizational information to the government, criminalizing demonstration organizers if a protest turns violent, and restricting foreign donations to NGOs. Some of these laws are unique – for instance, she described one passed in Burundi that banned jogging, because the government feared that its opponents used jogging as a pretense for subversive meetings. But, as she explained, it is also increasingly common for authoritarian governments to copy laws from one context to another.

Ralph argued that one reason for the ubiquity of measures like these is that authoritarian governments fear the organizing power of civil society. She further attributed the crackdown on civil society to the proliferation of anti-terrorism campaigns across the globe and the rise of corporate power. Ralph noted a rise in the assassination of human rights defenders who were fighting to protect the rights of indigenous communities. One example given was the killing of Honduran activist Berta Cáceres, who was one of the Fund for Global Human Rights’ grantees.

To Ralph, attacks on civil society pose an existential threat to human rights advocacy and should make us rethink the ways we do and support activism. Ralph stressed that the Fund for Global Human Rights rejects the “dominant philanthropic model,” in which donors dictate uses for funding. “I’m an activist by training, and I’ve raised money my entire adult life,” said Ralph, “and I know that model is not useful.” She explained that her organization gives human rights defenders money in ways that “release power to activists themselves.”

She explained, activists are already developing strategies to counter the crackdown on civil society by planning protests or building constituencies across different sectors to support and protect themselves. In an era of authoritarianism, she said, “We need alternative power bases – it’s all about getting human rights activists to look outside their silos and think about potential allies.” Ralph brought up several success stories, including a group of Moroccan women’s rights activists who worked with local authorities in Marrakesh to build the city’s most prominent women’s center and helped pass legislation on women’s rights.

Lastly, Ralph emphasized the importance of countering the narrative put forward by authoritarian leaders that human rights activists are foreign interlopers. She noted creative strategies to influence public opinion in favor of human rights causes, such as comedians in India who are speaking out against assaults on civil society.

Ralph remains hopeful, mainly thanks to the innovation in activism she sees across the globe.  “This is a time where activists are being challenged in ways they never expected to be, and nobody is listening to the old way that we’ve done things,” she said. “But what’s exciting in moment like this is that we have the possibility to change the way we work.”