the oldest oscar nominee for his role as j. paul getty he's survived by his wife elaine and daughter the actor amanda palmer. all the news of course on our website there it is on your screen the address down to 0 dot com that's al jazeera dot com. time for a quick check of the headlines here on al-jazeera libya's warring factions have agreed on the leaders of an interim government a diplomat from the east will head a presidency council and a businessman from the west will be prime minister those 2 sides of battle to control the best and 2014 they'll take the country to december's elections but won't be able to stand for the u.n. said a gentle antonio protest is hailed the deal as a reason for optimism i do believe it is a breakthrough and it is following the successful result of the negotiations

of the 5 plus 5 the military the joint military committee that led to a ceasefire so you know we have a ceasefire we have a political agreement about elections we have a new jersey tional thought it is being put in place all going to be put in place the international criminal court says it has territorial jurisdiction of the palestine the i.c.c. as chief prosecutor has been asking the court's permission to investigate alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity by israel and palestinian groups us president joe biden has urged congress to pass a 1 point one trillion dollar pandemic relief plan he says it's urgently needed as new data on jobs showed how the american economy is still struggling to recover in the wake of the pandemic an outline of a deal has been approved in the house and democrats are hoping to pass a final version by the end of the month. travelers arriving to the u.k. from corona virus hotspots will now have to quarantine the 10 days the so-called

red list of countries including most of latin america southern africa and the united arab emirates thousands of hotel rooms near c.n.n. reports are being booked and arrivals will have to foot the bill is designed to stop the spread of new taters virus strains a digital crackdown by me in mars military joint on protesters organizing online is intensifying after facebook now twitter and instagram a block for users in the country. that hasn't deterred a growing number of people from joining united protests for the 5th straight day they're part of a growing civilian disobedience movement against myanmar generals who seized power in monday's coup people are demanding the release of the deposed civilian leader. and several others. so those are the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after inside story stage and thanks for watching but for now.

misty international says there's a growing and human rights agenda well why to counter it has launched its 1st global of the gypsy fundraising campaign but how will riots defend is be protected and all they losing the fight is inside story. of the program i'm convinced amnesty international says the scale of attacks on rights defenders around the world is gravely concerning the group has launched its

1st global emergency fund raising appeal to help protect them that's now calling on individuals and large donors to expand their support amnesty says the aim is to counter what it calls a growing human rights agenda we want to talk accuses so-called strongman of increasingly spreading division fair and sonnets in critical voices activists lawyers journalists and those working with n.g.o.s have faced prosecution harassment and even talked to the rights group says the money raised will go to relocating those in danger and providing them with the legal and medical aid among other costs let's take a look at a few governments by the group for the pain president trying to go to a signed an antiterrorism act into law last year granting as government unchecked powers to prosecute activists brazil's president diable sonata has imposed multiple policies that rights groups saying threaten the environment and limit women's rights turkey's parliament has run. through a new law that makes it difficult for civil society organizations to raise money

and turkey has been targeting dissident voices and many countries have use the global pandemic to adopt new laws that restrict press freedom and hungry the criminal code was amended threatening journalists with 5 years in prison for spreading what officials consider false information. well here are some of the world's biggest rights groups amnesty international was founded in 1961 by a british lawyer who wanted to taint amnesty for political prisoners around the world it is since grown into a global movement of more than 10 millions of horses human rights watch was established in $178.00 to investigate rights abuses in countries that signed the health think it a coronation it now operates on 5 continents and civil rights defenders was created in 1802 in sweden with a mission to empower rights activists who are at risk now operates in some of the world's most repressive regions. well time now to bring in our guest in london we have rod costless senior director

for research advocacy and policy and amnesty international konstanz germany judyth by a professor of social and political and apology at the university also constance and also in london toby cadman an international human rights lawyer very well welcome 5 to you all thank you for joining us on inside story to begin with you had costa tell me about this growing backlash against those working to defend human rights about amnesty work is against amnesty workers rather i mean surely this is nothing new thank you thank you very much kim and great pleasure to be with you and with colleagues for this discussion as you rightly said in your introduction what we are facing is an unprecedented situation and the situation is not interested into it because we are not confronted these challenges before but it is unprecedented because of the sheer scale and because in this with which the crackdown against

civic space and the human rights agenda is being implemented by the governments around the world if you look closely and you cited some of the specific instances from governments and the strong man leadership that is being manifested we have a few clear trends that are starting to emerge firstly there's a pattern of threats intimidation and harassment that is visible in relation to the work on human rights around the world it is not only in terms of what we do today what we are facing reprisal because we speak out and we stand for human rights tags that you are facing are full board in terms of the issues that you work in but also the kind of work that we do media workers journalists advocates activists are being reprimanded for the work that they do only recently in india a journal. book for covering families protests that have been going on i have to also point out that this was not sudden but it is systemic and has been building up

over a period of time importantly also what we are witnessing is not only just the physical elements of intimidations and violence that you're facing but also within the digital spaces where we are smear campaigns are being launched against human rights defenders around the world i'm going to be ok i want to i want to get on to the issue of how the digital stare has impacted the work of human rights activists work is a little later in the program for now i'd like to come to you judith but if i may want your take on things actually getting worse for human rights defenders and what countries in your experience of the worst offenders. yeah i would definitely have to agree with you and the condit could just stop working personally and not for terri in states in kurdistan in central asia and in southeast asia both have a notorious history of human rights used and we've just witnessed this week

a coup in the military has taken over and. king i know of human rights defenders who have gone into hiding because they're fearing. arrest and definitely yes. it's getting worse it's getting more difficult for people on the ground but also for an outsider like media who am i trying to work into space between activism and scholarly work and it's a very tough situation yes toby cadman why do you think we're saying this rise in the targeting of human rights defendants thank you just just really thoughtful job to get set if they care is quite right that was this is not new it is much worse concentrated i think we've ever experienced before and so. and i think there are course a number of reasons for that i think that the pen damage has contributed to that it

is used as a way to a sense that. human rights fundamental freedoms. and you know we have situations in countries like egypt bangladesh the gulf states where where free speech is not permissible initiate will for any criticism is targeted and so you have laws being enacted in those states to target chimeras defenders in the city of journalists and any any form of criticism i think a lot of it comes from the insecurity. autocracies and dictatorships. and so you know was they have been able to use the courts as a top to repress any form of opposition to their rule and i think we're seeing new ways to do that and human rights defenders being time didn't consider.

myself i've i've been detained in bangladesh i've been detained in israel for particular rights work so you know that has been increasing over time and i think the the the emergence of social media and more well i think we caught the weaponization of misinformation has been used as a way to discredit and target shooting residents of the chip u.s. so i think there are numerous reasons for it but i think it's you know it's sort of the entrenchment of all autocratic policies. that has been used to talk you respect whether it's amnesty human rights watch or whether it's individual human rights advocates that's how is the rise of thing in your opinion how is the rise of populism contributed to the rise in attacks on human rights defenders. i

think it has had an immense contribution in terms of the overall approach that these populists leaders have tended to have on the work on human rights and in india if you would therefore any any form of dissent needs to be muzzled and silenced and the tactics that have been there for appointed by leaders from more the 2 to tear it to former u.s. president trump speak to this effect and what it has end up doing is in terms of using demagoguery as the populist rhetoric and in terms of feeding into the fear of people and while abandoning the human rights protected. and get in teeth and at the end what you are seeing is a growing trend as is what previous speaker also pointed out to is camilla efficient or civic space in india for instance recently we have just seen. using the law provisions of sedition of legislation in other countries that have

been used against human rights defenders and this is increasingly bloody in terms of how these populist governments are looking at those activists working on the ground and protesting for justice by i was interested to hear from you that human rights can only be claimed if a person has a nationality or is recognized as being stateless by a state so that must mean a lot of people have no recourse should their human rights being abused you know this is unfortunately correct. all those people who are defacto state as a differentiation being made between do you are status people and in fact a sentence people if they missed even states officially recognizes you as inspectors person you do have human rights and access other rights and you are protected in that sense but the problem is that that the majority of people and

we're talking about. a number of 10000000 to 15000000 people at the moment i defectors said so they do not have access to human rights they don't have an island famous you pointed out even their rights to have rights and this goes for. the big muslim re-injure who have been shuffled speech wein bangladesh and i'm asked for the last decade it's most of them are the factors they call us and this is a huge problem i think that needs more attention internationally arts because when we speak of human rights that every person has them but there is a large group of us that. people do not and we need to take care of these people toby cadman give us your take on the overall legal landscape in terms of the defense of human rights. it and are these international treaties working. well i

think that's one of the biggest problems and it's always a question of defaults ability. for city and we have a number of different mechanisms that we can tend to enable what is good having the treaties and also the reporting mechanisms but if that if if there is no to effective in force ability and if states are liberty to suggest normal that process then and. that whatever process you're having place it is going to provide no remedy to to the violations and you you have a situation where you have states like saudi arabia as an example sitting on on human rights panels the u.n. human rights council you have the situation with the u.n. security council where that one a little off i attended many of us has the ability to get the

a referral to the international criminal court for example and in a situation in which one of those family members may have been actively involved in the commission of international crime so the difficulty that you have is that there is no infelicity mechanism one of the issues that was raised recently by the un special rapporteur. on this kind of when we were looking at the the brutal execution of jamal khashoggi was that there there is no standing mechanism to do with this particular type of situation. particularly as far as genesis human rights defenders of consent and so i think a lot of the frustration comes from sentiment on approach as a as a human rights lawyer to to to act for a victim because you know what can you do to bring about any any resolution to my particular problem and that that is always the biggest frustration you know you have into. in

a court but it is limited in its jurisdiction you have this human rights monitoring body. the only u.s. local. there is already a state corporation if there is no state corporation there is there is no effective remedy well let's say you're waiting as one or the entire system seems very ineffective i want to come back to the town khosla what 4 are the most used tactics now to suppress human rights defend is and how has that changed over time amnesty has been around since 961 so how have those tactics changed over time. thanks kim i think unfortunately the picture is indeed very bleak when you look at the kind of tactics that are being used and unfortunately these are the tactics. drawing upon the classic playbook of human rights violators around the world what we're looking at tactics you know for instance freezing bank accounts and making

operations human rights organizations on the ground time this gene in india who are at the front line of this attack and continue to be unable to operate in the country because all of freezing up for assets within the country context. the other tactic that is being used is that of you know campaigns against against human rights defenders and those who work in this regard if you look at what has happened in hungary for instance the parliament passing a legislation in 2018 which criminalize anybody providing support to asylum seekers and and then amnesty along with several other organizations had their membership and other details being leaked by by by activists supporting the government then if that is intended of what they also use is violence

against us that we have had in venezuela one of our former chair members of the scene when israel are actually attacked. and suffered gunshot injury about 100 meters away from the office and then there are of course constant threats and intimidation and harassment which we have facing around the world you know from nigeria to hong kong to several other locations as well so unfortunate picture there it is in terms of folk classic human rights while it just may books being used against those defending human rights to free up all agreeing. then that human rights globally seem to be under attack perhaps going backwards has the human rights defense movement civil society groups like amnesty international have a in some way failed does the whole idea of naming and shaming that strategy does that need to be thought about again. i'm not sure whether. i as

a scholar and the right person to ask this question because i do think that we need certain knowledge it's an incredibly hard and very dangerous type of work that these people are doing and they're brave. in doing so and i think what has failed this is the very. system us of how states are operating we could also criticize the way the u.n. is operating for example in america now and that is a statement from the u.n. security council but if you look at the language then it's again phrased in terms of grave concern for example so it's very very timid and very careful and we all know that this is the u.n. can operate but the abuses are really extreme as my colleague just said and that kind of substance same thing happening in genocide and yet much like sample in bangladesh. before we move the way before we move away from from the question i

understand if you feel like it's not in your remit i want to put the same question to toby cadman before i come back to you roger costa for your response toby rights groups human rights defend is failing to come up with revolutionary alternatives to what they're doing which seems to not be working. very simply no i think we would be in a substantially worse position. was it not for groups like amnesty and you can write or story be incredibly important we're doing but we also have to recognize that the limitations on what they've achieved. i think that. certainly for them to stand human rights watch this as the 2 leading towards ation in this field have adapted to the changing environment. do approach things in a very different way than. i did it 10 years ago and i've had to do that because

that the environment in which we forced to work an organization such as such is the one. we rely. on the reports that amnesty and human rights watch. past and present publicly and if we're looking at repeat defending an individual international courts united kingdom we we will have to use the reports of amnesty and human rights laws because they're the only well there are 2 reports on the tape that the massive and you know practical issues so no the savior is not from that the failure is from states and the failure from the united nation not not producing an effective mechanism to do it with the engine cause i'd like to come back to you know that he is going to argue the fact that human rights abuses are apparent that people who defend human rights are doing very good work that shining a light on this is crucial is there room for improvement in the way amnesty

international works say with financial management i mean you haven't put a call out for funds because you desperately need them to continue your work. thank you thank you kim that you know i cannot said better than my 2 previous colleagues who have spoken in this regard there are a couple of things which are important to unpack the 1st is which was point very eloquently made by toby just now isn't relationship to the mccann is thems that we have it disposal and are they fit for pope unfortunately the answer is that they are not fit for purpose and we do need to look deeper and harder in terms of addressing the gaps that we have because at the end of the day what we are unable to do is provide effective remedies and justice to those facing human rights violations we also need to address the role of the member states of these macan isms and institutions are playing in relation to the abandonment of their responsibilities in this regard and often using you know my kind is i'm such

a security council or the human rights council let's figleaves that they hide behind and not being fair in their engagement of these mechanisms. the point about can we do better of course we can do better we are constantly evolving and learning from the lessons of the past and adopting to new techniques that we are doing we today have gotten a kind of sums in partnership through which we are working in terms of looking at the work for instance that we are doing in terms of digital so the lens etc and addressing the new forms of attacks and intimidation that are happening within the space we are constantly evolving in terms of addressing issues that we haven't been confronted with that it is within the physical space or within the digital space so yes of course that is all because of room for improvement but when we do need some c.d.'s improvement is in terms of the conduct of these member states and that is a complete abandonment of leadership on their regard and you know. i have to cite

you know and do it what you used to actually use within the human rights work is that of naming and shaming that you also refer to and the whole idea behind the naming and shaming tactic was that if you name them they might be ashamed to actually do some corrective action but today if you're looking at leadership that is shameless and that does not actually react to any kind of criticism so we are looking very deep in terms of how do we address these unprecedented nature of attacks that we are facing which have gotten very brazen and people are paying with their life unfortunately to this by running towards the end of the program i want to ask you because we talked about a little earlier just touched on it how do you see the advances in the digital space online how that has impacted the work of human rights defenders. yeah i think it's tremendously important as we're witnessing it right now in yemen where the revolution of the resistance movement is happening online for 2 reasons

one is the cause and make and 2 because people are afraid to go outside so there are going to sing and i and it was usually done only through facebook facebook has a very important role in your mouse and that face the rest shut down yesterday and so everyone goes they say can move into twitter installing the pm service to relocate outside of the country to then be able to access facebook again and all of the other news a. resistance this is happening online and it's incredibly important and the scholars also as activists human rights defenders as we need to be available are not as well and others remain in touch with the people so it's an incredibly important momentum and human rights defense i would say probably had just very quickly what is your hope for the coming of their intense all of human rights one of the big issues that you think the world is facing and should be listening to you

they're one of the issues that we're doing a lot of work on in the moment and we want to get into street achieved say. no top this is as a missionary the weaponization of misinformation i think it's it's a very poisonous and dangerous innovation that we've seen where affectively social media makes everyone a journalist and everything they say as the variance of being truth and that has very dangerous consequences in situations like syria. that there i think which is which is incredibly important. that we not get to change the u.n. security council overnight we not going to change the u.n. into being a more in forcible process and i appreciate the u.n. has many different forms such as one thing but. i think that's something that has to be looked at long term the final thing is that there has to be greater

attention to the protection of human rights defenders whistle blows what we're seeing is systems like interpol being used well my apologies are we have to leave it at a time we have run out of time for the program thank you very much to all of i guess . by and toby cadman thank you for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website algis there or dot com and for further discussion you can go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forced us a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a day inside story from a canal in the entire team here and our life and our. the

latest news as it breaks human rights groups are questioning why people are taken to this isolation senators and the treatment they receive one fare there with detailed coverage beyond groups now control the villages that we can see on the other side of the river people who live on this side they can hear gunfire when they're fighting from around the world months after that i will cain eruption they say their harvest right now back to normal. oman has a rich history but also plays an important diplomatic role in the gulf region today al-jazeera will discover as its empire stretched from the arabian peninsula to east africa built on great sea power. the problem that existed in the gulf was piracy. tribes warlords rebellion empire and colonize ation of.

oman history power and influence on al-jazeera we know what's happening in our region we know how to get them they feel that others cannot the fires are still going on the way they tell the story is what can make a difference. and i'm down in jordan in doha with the top stories here on al jazeera delegates from libya's rival factions have agreed on leaders of an interim unity government until elections are held in december it's hoped the landmark decision could bring an end to the conflict that engulfed the country since the toppling of moammar gadhafi almost 10 years ago malik trainer reports from tripoli in what the u.n. is calling a historical vote participants of the libyan political dialogue for.