536 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 79 PART 4 JULY 2021
Kong protests against China’s violations, protests against Canadian government
crackdowns against Indigenous land defenders, protests against racist
police violence throughout the United States and protests against electoral
fraud in Belarus.
Human rights advocates, including LRWC volunteers, have continued to
intervene to address these breaches and defend the right of peaceful dissent
and protest through documentation, legal research, educational seminars,
letters and statements seeking compliance with international human rights
law and standards.
A SUMMARY OF LRWC INTERVENTIONS IN 2020 AND THE FIRST HALF OF
20212
LRWC intervened to address violations against those upholding Indigenous
peoples’ rights, land rights or environmental rights (e.g., in Canada, Colombia
and Thailand). LRWC volunteers resisted the continued shrinkage of
space for dissent as governments created or abused laws to delegitimize or
criminalize human rights advocacy and to threaten freedoms or even the
lives of those who engage in peaceful dissent (in Cambodia, Canada, Hong
Kong SAR, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Turkey and the United States). LRWC has
also spoken out about violations by corporations (e.g., in Malaysia, in Thailand
and by Zoom Inc.).
LRWC joined global advocacy against draconian COVID-19 emergency
laws or discriminatory application or neglect of public health measures
(e.g., in Cambodia, Canada, China and Colombia). In some cases, COVID-19
prisoner releases excluded human rights advocates (e.g., in Iran and
Turkey). LRWC also worked to address situations where powerful states and
corporations either engaged in or remained silent in the face of atrocity
crimes against religious minorities and human rights advocates (e.g., in
China and Myanmar). LRWC also noted active attempts to subvert or
weaken international human rights law and bodies (e.g., in China).
During the first half of 2021, LRWC volunteers have been monitoring situations
in more than a dozen countries, including the countries named
above. LRWC’s work has included interventions, including joint letters or
statements with other human rights organizations, concerning the following
countries:
• Azerbaijan, where lawyers are routinely disbarred or denied
admission to the bar as a result of their human rights advocacy;
• Cambodia, where the COVID-19 pandemic has been used as an
excuse to limit human rights advocacy and to justify draconian and