Repression and resilience: Diagnosing closing space mid-pandemic

26 REPRESSION AND RESILIENCE: DIAGNOSING CLOSING SPACE MID-PANDEMIC
Defenders of democratic space
mid-pandemic
In the face of these many trends that restrict space for
contestation, it is important to ask: who has actually been
defending democratic space during the pandemic? And
how are they keeping democratic space from closing in
the face of a public health and economic crisis? While
we know the state and non-state actors who’ve led the
clampdown on democratic space very well, this section
looks at the key actors who defended democratic space
in 2020, and compares the impact of the pandemic on
these actors’ ability and tactics for defending democratic
space.
like Venezuela and El Salvador, civil society shifted their
focus to service provision and the pandemic response
at local level. This included efforts to increase access
to safe water, sanitation and food security. Civil society
stepped in for authorities in supplying key services and
information, particularly for those groups subjected to
intersecting vulnerabilities and curtailed rights. 94 95 The
collective response to the Beirut Port explosion in August
2020 is an example of how the solidarity of Lebanese civil
society effectively replaced government help to address
a multifaceted crisis that severely affected the poor. 96
Civil society and citizens
Just like all other sectors in society, civil society and
media workers had to move their activities online and
adapt to the new working environment. For CSOs in
areas with limited internet access or infrastructure for
social distancing, this brought significant challenges
and disruptions in their work. Moreover, CSOs were
wary of online surveillance by law enforcement, leading
to significant self-censorship. Many CSOs further
experienced delays in the disbursement of funding, but
most donors were flexible in adapting projects to the
new reality.
Despite all these obstacles, civil society proved to be
adaptive and often played a crucial part in protecting
vulnerable communities from the multiple impacts of
COVID-19 restrictions. In countries where the pandemic
brought about significant socio-economic hardships,
While this provided much-needed relief, it also shifted
focus away from advocacy and demands for political
participation and reforms. Most protests in these
countries similarly demonstrated against hunger, lack of
access to water and healthcare, and injustices against
workers. In some countries this came at the expense
of democratic reform movements. In Venezuela, for
instance, the new consciousness of the need for reform
and momentum for democracy that was seen in January
2020, gave way to a re-prioritisation of socio-economic
concerns among the broader population with the onset
of the pandemic. While protests on poor public service
provision - particularly health, education, water, gas
and electricity - continued in 2020, there were far less
protests demanding political reform and the opposition
movement lost significant momentum. As the researcher
described, “the demand for democratisation might
persist, but the hopes of it taking place are now remote.”
In other countries, however, the pandemic also led to
94 Young, R. & Panchulidze, E. (2020): Global Democracy & COVID-19: Upgrading International Support. Available here.
95 For a comprehensive list of civil society efforts during the pandemic, see: CIVICUS (2020): Solidarity in the Times of COVID-19: Civil society
responses to the pandemic. Available here.
96 The New Humanitarian (18 August 2020): “Local groups step up to lead Beirut blast response”. Available here.