Thinking Democratically: A Comprehensive Approach to Countering and Preventing Shrinking Space

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Table 1: Overview of tactics to close democratic space in country case studies Europe Zimbabwe Honduras Guatemala El Salvador Georgia Indonesia Kenya Civic space Legal tactics Administrative tactics Political tactics Uneven playing field Abuse of state resources Reforms in electoral & party law Campaign finance & money in politics Rule of law Attacks on independence of judiciary Impunity Open space / not under attack Space is closing / under increasing attack At risk / under light attack Closed space 12
2.1 Closing civic space There is an impressive range of studies into closing civic space worldwide. 20 Civic space is widely defined as the environment in which citizens and CSOs can freely organise, participate and communicate without hindrance, and thereby exercise their right to freedom of association, peaceful assembly and expression. 21 ‘Shrinking’ civic space is the systematic trend of gradual restrictions imposed on citizens – especially those participating in CSO activities – to keep them from exercising their rights to freedom of assembly, association and speech, usually by the state. Because ‘shrinking’ implies an involuntary and irreversible trend, the term ‘closing space’ has generally been preferred by civil society organisations. 22 Civic space is the first battle ground for the closing of democratic space, through three types of measures: legislative, administrative and extra-legal or political measures. The graph below shows that all cases under study saw varying degrees of decline in civil liberties in recent years, except for Zimbabwe, which can be explained by the slight (and short lived) political opening following the departure of the longtime dictator Robert Mugabe. 20 Including by CIVICUS with their annual state of civil society report, as well as by Amnesty International, the International Centre for Not-for-Profit Law, the Council of Europe, and Fronline Defenders, the Fundamental Rights Agency, amongst others. 21 CIVICUS (2018): what is civic space? Available here. 22 From this point onwards, this report will use the term ‘closing space’ to describe the phenomena of gradual restrictions imposed on citizens – especially those participating in CSO activities – to keep them from exercising their rights to freedom of assembly, association and speech. 13
Page 1 and 2: Agence Française de Coopération M
Page 3 and 4: TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables an
Page 5 and 6: Executive Summary ‘Shrinking civi
Page 7 and 8: A third finding is that space is be
Page 9 and 10: This trend has been heightened by t
Page 11: 2. Strategies for closing democrati
Page 15 and 16: or specific voices that are deemed
Page 17 and 18: laundering has been translated into
Page 19 and 20: Smear-campaigns and the strategic u
Page 21 and 22: All scoring runs from 0 to 1, with
Page 23 and 24: to enforce political party complian
Page 25 and 26: Campaign finance and money in polit
Page 27 and 28: While most countries’ constitutio
Page 29 and 30: unpunished. These included people l
Page 31 and 32: 3. Main Actors The picture that eme
Page 33 and 34: an evolving trend in Indonesia and
Page 35 and 36: Emblematic civil society successes
Page 37 and 38: 3.3 Other non-state actors: busines
Page 39 and 40: 3.5 International donors Internatio
Page 41 and 42: 4. Conclusion While the 7 case stud
Page 43 and 44: The case studies show that the atta
Page 45 and 46: Instead, people resort to less conv
Page 47 and 48: Civil society was much stronger in
Page 49 and 50: 2. Respond with a multi-level whole
Page 51 and 52: 4. Global coordination and politica
Page 53 and 54: petitions; awareness creation; stre
Page 55 and 56: 6.4 Georgia In Georgia, civic space
Page 57 and 58: This leads to a complete lack of re
Page 59 and 60: Poland LGBTQI people have suffered

Thinking Democratically: A Comprehensive Approach to Countering and Preventing Shrinking Space

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