Civil Resistance Against 21st Century Authoritarianism. Defending Human Rights in the Global South

Abstract

Populist authoritarian governments have jeopardized the human rights accomplishments of the 20th century. Ensuring their fulfillment has become a challenge for these governments and an issue for human rights defenders seeking to find ways to resist anti-democratic actions. This book seeks to expose the crisis of human rights at the hands of people who, despite rising to power through democratic means, now see democracy as a limiting institution that must be dismantled urgently. Restrictions on civil society and arbitrary detentions are some of the reasons why this populist and authoritarian vision is incompatible with human rights, which are guaranteed to some and denied to others. Through various narratives, the authors seek to recognize new spaces for struggle—such as political activism—to develop action-research tools in a context of crisis.