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CALS and Right2Protest host Anti-Repression Week 2025

- Lee-Anne Gaertner

The Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) and the Right2Protest Project (R2P) are set to host the third annual Anti-Repression Week from 17 – 20 November 2025

This event presents an opportunity to raise awareness and mobilise action against the increasing suppression of dissent in South Africa. We take the opportunity to highlight our work promoting the rights to protest and freedom of expression.

In recent years, threats and attacks on anyone speaking out on matters of public interest have increased dramatically. Activists and journalists from all over the world have had to endure repressive tactics that aim to silence their voices. They experience death threats, physical violence, harassment, surveillance, frivolous lawsuits and unlawful detention and arrests.

CALS and R2P are working to counter this shrinking of civic space. Next week, we are set to host the third annual Anti-Repression Week. The week consists of a series of online events aimed at uniting our voices in resisting repression and promoting the rights to protest and freedom of expression in South Africa.

The event will run from 17 – 20 November 2025. Key highlights of the week include webinars on the role of corporations in furthering repression, misinformation and digital security, and the criminalisation of social movements. 

“We hope that Anti-Repression Week will continue to create a positive impact, shape public discourse around activist repression and influence the development of more robust legal protections for human rights defenders,” says Sithuthukile Mkhize, head of Civil and Political Justice at CALS.

For inquiries, please contact:

From the Centre for Applied Legal Studies:

From the Right2Protest Project:

 

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