On December 2, high-profile Hong Kong activists Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow received jail sentences for 13.5 months and 10 months, respectively, for peacefully surrounding the police headquarters in June 2019 against the Beijing-backed Hong Kong government. The next day, Jimmy Lai, publisher of the only pro-democracy newspaper the Apple Daily, was arrested and denied bail for violating the terms of the media’s lease. Hong Kongers have been protesting to defend freedoms and demand democracy for decades, to no avail. With all forms of open dissent being banned by 2020, Hong Kongers are wondering if and how they will be able to keep the fire burning and not give up. […]

The pandemic this year hasn’t stopped people in Latin America from gathering and pushing for their rights, justice, and democracy agendas. In some cases, government mismanagement or inaction on COVID-19 even provoked mass demonstrations, as was the case in Brazil. Yet this is not the only civil resistance trend one may identify in the region this year. Although violence remains an instrument of choice for many non-state groups, by and large, the stereotype of the armed guerrilla fighter as the symbol of a freedom fighter, which has plagued the collective conscience of Latin America for centuries, […]

“It took more than a month of nonviolent pro-democracy protests by Belarusians—met consistently with vicious repression by the Lukashenko government—before some democratic countries selectively imposed sanctions on key perpetrators of the regime. Democracies can and must do better in providing support and concrete assistance to pro-democracy movements and thus mitigate violence against unarmed people and, in the long run, help increase the chances of success for the pro-democracy resistance. […]”

ماچه بارتکوفسکی مینویسد: “بگذارید بگویم که شما دارید درنیروی پلیس، امنیت داخلی، سرویسهای اطلاعاتی ویا درارتش خدمت میکنید. مافوق شما دستورمیدهد که جنبش دموکراسی خواه و مردم غیرمسلح که به عنوان اعتراض بیرون آمدهاند را سرکوب کنید. شما با آنچه حاکمیت وجیرهخواران اطرافش میخواهند بکنند، موافق نیستید و با تمام وجود میدانید اگرازاین دستورات پیروی کنید، دیگر به مردم خدمت نمیکنید. شما دنبال راههایی هستید که سرکوب را به تاخیر انداخته وازمسیرخود خارج کنید و یا درمقابل دستورات حاکمیت برای سرکوب جنبش بیخشونت بایستید.
“[…]شما تنها نیستید

当公民用民主运动反抗独裁统治的时候，安保部队（警察、内部安全机构、情报部门和军队）的成员  可以提供什么帮助？[…]

Abdourahman s’est lancé dans l’auto-apprentissage de la stratégie de l’action non violente dans un contexte très répressif. Il sortait de quatre mois de prison pour avoir participé à une réunion de crise de la coalition d’opposition. Simplement en tapant le terme « comment vaincre une dictature sans violence » dans un moteur de recherche, il a découvert quelques livres clés sur la résistance non violente, traduits en français et mis à disposition gratuitement sur les sites de CANVAS, d’ICNC, et d’autres organisations engagées dans l’éducation sur ce sujet. […]

Abdourahman embarked on self-study of the strategy of nonviolent action in a repressive climate. He had just served four years in prison for participating in an opposition coalition meeting for which he was serving as secretary general at the time. Simply by typing “how to bring down a dictatorship without violence” into a search engine, he discovered some key texts on nonviolent resistance that had been translated into French and made available free of charge on the websites of CANVAS, ICNC, and other educational organizations. […]

Когда граждане в борьбе за демократию оказывают гражданское сопротивление авторитарному правлению, как им могут помочь сотрудники правоохранительных органов, внутренней безопасности, разведывательных служб и военнослужащие страны? […]

“Dictatorships project unwavering discipline when they exercise—or aspire to exercise—enduring control over their societies. In response, movements must work on honing and harnessing their own discipline. Being more disciplined than their opponents gives movements an edge in winning. Discipline is a behavior that is learned and perfected through practice and training. It has less to do with command and control structures through which orders are given or punitive sanctions are exercised. […]”