Lawfare is the strategic use of law to punish rather than protect. It has become one of the most pervasive tools of modern authoritarianism. Around the world, governments are manipulating criminal justice systems to criminalise dissent while preserving the façade of legality.
Emergency decrees in El Salvador, death sentences for speech in Tunisia, administrative harassment in Hong Kong, defamation and cybercrime laws in West Africa, and anti-terror or national security legislation across Asia. In each country, the law is deployed selectively to target activists, journalists, land defenders, political opponents, and community leaders.
Repression today is bureaucratised. If law is allowed to become a weapon, democratic institutions lose meaning.
