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

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create a parallel court system under the direct control of the Minister of Justice, who would be empowered to appoint judges and decide on budgets without any oversight. 58 In Poland, a similar law was passed in 2015 to give the Ministry of Justice the exclusive power to dismiss and appoint Presidents and Vice-Presidents of courts, and the retirement age of judges was changed to purge the supreme court. 59 In response to pressure from the EU, which is investigating breaches of the rule of law in Hungary and Poland, Hungary withdrew the law. The figure below illustrates the gradual regression in judicial independence in Hungary and in Germany, as well as a sharp decline in recent years in Romania and Poland. All scoring runs from 0 to 1, with 1 representing the highest achievement. Source: International IDEA, Global State of Democracy Indices. Available here. Impunity Such a crackdown on the independence of the judiciary is especially harmful when it goes hand in hand with impunity for human rights violations and crimes against human rights defenders, journalists, civil society leaders and other public figures (as in Honduras, El Salvador, Indonesia). In Honduras, out of 68 violent deaths of people in the media sector in 2001-2016, 62 cases have gone 58 Human Rights Watch (2018): Hungary’s latest assault on the judiciary. Available here. 59 Netherlands Helsinki Committee (2019): Struggle for the Rule of Law in Poland Continues. Available here. 28
unpunished. These included people linked to the media, including journalists, broadcasters, photographers, cameramen and media owners. Another targeted group are land and environmental rights defenders, of whom 123 were killed between 2009 to 2016. These murders only rarely lead to any convictions. 60 The inability of the Courts to process such cases may reflect that they have been co-opted or purposefully incapacitated by criminal or political interest groups or the state. Such impunity further exacerbates the failure in upholding the rule of law. Security and police forces also play an important role in enforcing the rule of law. However, these very same groups are all too often the perpetrators of human rights violations, particularly in a conflict affected setting. In one emblematic case, a female police officer in El Salvador was murdered by a colleague after a Christmas party, and other fellow police officers covered up the case. Other than the dissolution of the group, nobody took political responsibility or resigned, and it took months before the body was found. Human rights violations by the police during armed conflict – be it in East Timor or in El Salvador – very often go unpunished. In fact, Indonesia adopted a law that effectively guarantees impunity for crimes committed by the police, by prohibiting law enforcement agencies from investigating a police officer without the pre-approval of the national police chief. Impact of the failure to uphold the rule of law Such a failure to uphold the rule of law and punish those perpetrating violent crimes erodes the social contract, as people retreat from the public sphere and lose trust in state institutions and political processes. It also has a major chilling effect on public figures such as journalists, CSOs, HRDs, opposition parties and other dissenting voices. Attacks on the judiciary and the presence of a climate of impunity erode civic and democratic space precisely because they undermine the notion of accountability as well as the ability of democratic institutions to undertake their core functions. Attacks on the independence of the judiciary are also strongly linked to the creation of an uneven political playing field and attacks on civic freedoms. That is because a neutral arbiter is necessary for, inter alia, resolving cases involving political parties, electoral disputes, as well as the constitutionality of laws restricting space for CSOs and cases on media ownership. When the supposedly neutral arbiter is managed by political appointees, it becomes exceedingly difficult for civil society and opposition parties to protect democratic space. Political candidates can be excluded from participating in elections, for instance, based on fake complaints to a partisan judiciary – a phenomenon called the “judicialisation of politics” in Guatemala. 60 Latin American Working Group Education Fund, 2017: Honduras: Space for Activists and Journalists Closing, Wide Open for Corruption. Available here. 29
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 and 12: 2. Strategies for closing democrati
Page 13 and 14: 2.1 Closing civic space There is an
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: While most countries’ constitutio
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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