Warwick Law School News

Mandeep Singh Tiwana, who studied on our LLM in Law in Development from 2000-2001, has recently been appointed the new Secretary General of CIVICUS Global Alliance.

CIVICUS is the world’s pre-eminent civil society alliance with members and partners in over 175 countries. CIVICUS works to strengthen civil society and citizen action and is best known for its work to defend civic space and promote civil society participation. Mr Tiwana has had an impressive career to date and has been working with CIVICUS for over 15 years. A human rights lawyer by training, he has worked tirelessly over the past two decades to defend fundamental freedoms.

When asked about the role, Mandeep told us:

“After several years of fostering transnational civic solidarity and engaging influential policy advocates at the global civil society alliance, CIVICUS, I am enthused to take on the role. As Secretary General, my work is cut out to advance the organisation’s vision of a worldwide community of engaged empowered citizens confronting the challenges facing humanity. I look forward to the opportunity of serving our alliance of justice-oriented organisations and activists by supporting peaceful resistance against authoritarianism, international solidarity and coalition building across borders.”

“These are challenging times for civil society due to the march of populism and authoritarianism. Nevertheless, I’m inspired by the vibrant and hope giving potential of tens of thousands of committed civil society organizations and activists seeking to create a more peaceful, just, equal and sustainable world.”

Mr Tiwana has a strong track record of stimulating collaborative partnerships across a wide range of civil society actors to defend civic space and promote civil society participation. From international norm setting to mobilising diverse actors to help free prisoners of conscience, his experience spans a broad range of actions. Prior to assuming the role as CIVICUS’s Secretary General, he served as the organisation’s chief of evidence and engagement, and representative to the United Nations headquarters, and was responsible for global thought leadership and strategy making as well as outreach to diplomatic missions and the UN in New York.

Since joining CIVICUS in 2008, he has directed ground up strategic advocacy initiatives to support organisations seeking social change, often culminating at the highest levels of decision making. He also played a key role in leading CIVICUS’s advocacy to ensure the inclusion of Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions as a Sustainable Development Goal when Agenda 2030 was agreed by all world leaders in 2015.

His extensive experience includes working in broad coalitions, frequently bridging the divide between the so-called peace, development and human rights worlds. In all of these endeavours including in multilateral institutions and development cooperation forums, he has sought to advance rights-oriented policy making. Mr Tiwana currently sits on the Advisory Board of the UN Democracy Fund, the International Steering Committee of the Civil Society Pillar of the Community of Democracies and the Advisory Board of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights.

Before joining CIVICUS, he advised the New Delhi regional delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on their diplomatic engagement with Indian authorities with regards to treatment, conditions of detention and due process for detainees in the volatile region of Jammu and Kashmir. At the New Delhi based Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), he was involved in efforts to advance police reforms in India. Responsibilities included advising the national police law drafting committee on international best practices, engaging parliamentarians and government officials and working with civil society across the country to build public momentum for meaningful police reforms to insulate law enforcement from political interference. While at CHRI he co-authored a citizen’s handbook on human rights commissions in India, a compilation of Indian Supreme Court decisions on human rights and policing and a handbook for Commonwealth parliamentarians on human rights.

His professional journey began at a grassroots organisation in Chandigarh, India with the Institute for Development and Communication, which works in his home province of Punjab. Mandeep believes this has enabled him to stay grounded and appreciate the courage and commitment of those who work directly with communities. Years of working at the national level have attuned him to resource constraints and access challenges faced by smaller civil society organisations of the kind that make up a substantial portion of CIVICUS’s membership.

Speaking about the future and what he hopes to achieve in this role, Mandeep shared:

“I hope through sustained peaceful resistance and citizen action enabled by solidarity we will be able to overcome authoritarian and anti-rights forces that are actively seeking to undermine human dignity and deny people - especially the excluded - the agency to shape the decisions that impact their lives in far too many places across the globe.”

We asked about his time on the LLM at Warwick and how it prepared him for his subsequent career. He shared:

“My LLM in Law in Development at Warwick was a life changing experience. I came to Warwick fresh out of law school in India. Thus, insights gained from luminaries like Professor Upendra Baxi and the deep discussions we had among peers both inside and outside the classroom have had a profound impact on my thinking and career trajectory. We had great camaraderie among the LLM students. Our after-class dialogues and impromptu parties were a lot of fun.”

Congratulations Mandeep. We wish you all the best in your new role. Thank you for sharing your story with us.

Find out more

Read the CIVICUS article on Mandeep’s appointment: https://www.civicus.org/index.php/media-resources/news/7676-time-to-build-a-wider-and-bolder-global-peoples-movement-for-civic-freedoms-new-civicus-secretary-general