Faculty of Law

Course Description

This course analyzes the challenges and paradoxes faced by civil society actors and human rights organization in times of war and peace. This implies o analyze the meaning and causes defended by civil society actors considering their contexts of actions and understanding them as a heterogeneous group.
Depending on the contexts, their interests, values as well as challenges varies. One of the current trends refers to the phenomenon known as “shrinking spaces”. The concept refers to the increasing trend and impact of diverse forms of restrictions and violence against critical actors, including academix and civil society organizations in different regions across the world, especially in the so-called “global south”. In the past few years there has been a new circle and increase of restrictive and punitive measures against political and social activists, practitioners, and scholars.  
Extreme violence is being used more frequently, albeit under formally democratic governments, while judicial harassment has become normalized. These and other measures are part of a global political climate that civil society experts have termed “shrinking space for civil society”, “disabled environments” (Van Tuijl 2000), “restricted operational space” (Borgh and Terwindt 2012), some even referring to a “closing space” or, in particularly drastic cases, to “no space for civil society” (Albrecht 2017).
It should be noted that government harassment and repression of social movements, opponents, critical scholars, and non-governmental organizations is not a new phenomenon in many countries. However, this new escalating wave of restrictions has a twenty-first-century twist and combines old and new elements. A crucial feature of shrinking spaces - which helps to distinguish it from past intimidation practices - is its gain in local legitimacy among large groups of local population and modernization through the use of civil and criminal law and of new technologies to suppress fundamental rights and liberties of civil society actors.
To analyze this growing trend of restricting and repressing civil society and especially human rights practitioners, the course will draw on the multiple dimensions of activism dynamica as well as the consequences of shrinking space in different regions across the world. 

Faculty

FB01

Institute

Law Faculty

Lecturer

Rosario Figari Layus

Study Period

11/04/2023 - 14/07/2023

Mode and Time

Synchronous, Time (CET): Thursday 12.00 - 14.00

Online Tool for Teaching

Stud.Ip Cisco

Language of Instruction

English

Target Group

Bachelor, Master

Prerequisites

English knowledge

Examination format

final paper

ECTS

6

Course Description

Faculty

Jutus Liebig University (JLU) Law 

Institute

Chair for Peace Research

Lecturer

Dima Mahjoub

Study Period (dd/mm/yy)

11/04/2023 - 14/07/2023

Mode and Time

Synchronous, Time (CET): Friday, 10.00 -12.00 am

Online Tool for Teaching

Webex

Language of Instruction

Arabic

Target Group

Bachelor, Master

Prerequisites

Arabic language B2

ECTS

6