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Call for contributions: Activist Symposium 2025

- Collaborators of the Activist Symposium

CALS and our partner organisations invite contributions on the theme of "Navigating activism in an anti-human rights era"

Collaborators of the Activist Symposium in partnership with University of Witwatersrand invite contributions to a workshop we intend to host during the Third Annual Activist Symposium in Johannesburg from 16 – 17 September 2025. This Symposium serves as a critical platform for activists, scholars and advocates to engage in meaningful dialogue, share strategies and strengthen transnational solidarity in the face of increasing repression.

The event will be convened by Professor Christopher Gevers, and abstracts and expressions of interest in the topic should be submitted by 13 June 2025 using the following link: https://forms.gle/hfnbTQ8TZyjHRqJY8.

Theme and scope

This year’s symposium – themed “Navigating Activism in an Anti-Human Rights Era” – will explore the growing challenges faced by human rights defenders, the erosion of democratic freedoms and the evolving landscape of activism. Participants will critically examine the tools and tactics required to resist systemic repression, misinformation and economic constraints while building resilient movements for change.

As part of this gathering, Day 1 will be dedicated to academic workshops, providing a space for activists, researchers, scholars and practitioners to present papers that critically engage with contemporary human rights challenges and the creation of an enabling environment for activism. This session will facilitate academic discourse that informs and strengthens activist strategies.

We invite contributions that address, but are not limited to, the following sub-themes:

  1. Anti-Democracy and Repression
  • The rise of authoritarianism and its impact on activism
  • Shrinking civic spaces and legislative restrictions on protest and free expression
  • Comparative case studies on resistance strategies against repressive laws
  1. Misinformation and the Digital Space
  • Strategies for combating misinformation and disinformation in activist spaces
  • Digital security and online advocacy in an era of increasing surveillance
  1. Austerity, Aid, and Human Rights
  • The impact of economic austerity on marginalised communities and human rights defenders
  • Aid conditionalities and their influence on activism and social movements
  • Strategies for economic justice and resource mobilisation for grassroots activism
  1. South-to-South Solidarity
  • Strengthening transnational activism and building cross-border alliances
  • Lessons from Global South resistance movements in navigating repression
  • The role of regional and international mechanisms in supporting human rights defenders

Submission Guidelines

We welcome a variety of formats of submissions, and this may include:

  • Abstracts for long papers (300 – 500 words) outlining key arguments and relevance to the symposium’s theme. For accepted academic abstracts, draft papers should be 5,000 – 8,000 words
  • Case note summaries of maximum 1,000 words
  • Short videos with a minimum of 3 minutes and maximum of 10 Minutes. Videos must be submitted in MP4 format and include a brief written description (150–200 words) outlining its relevance to the theme.
  • Photographs/photo exhibitions with a maximum of 5 high-resolution images (JPEG or PNG), submitted with captions and a 200 – 300-word curatorial note linking the work to the Symposium’s theme.
  • Short stories: Up to 1,500 words in length. Stories should be original, unpublished, and thematically aligned with the symposium focus.

雷速体育_雷速体育直播 Dates

Abstract/submission deadline: 13 June 2025

Feedback on abstracts/submissions: 4 July 2025

Draft submission (for accepted papers): 15 August 2025

This symposium offers a unique opportunity to contribute to a vital conversation on the future of activism through diverse forms of expression. We look forward to your submissions and to collectively shaping strategies for resilience and resistance in these challenging times.

The Activist Symposium is a collaboration between the following organisations: 

  • The Centre for Applied Legal Studies 
  • African Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders
  • Amnesty International 
  • The Centre for Human Rights 
  • The Centre for Environmental Rights 
  • Digital Society Africa 
  • Lawyers for Human Rights 
  • Media Monitoring Africa 
  • The Right2Protest Project
  • The Southern Africa Resource Watch 
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