Repression and resilience: Diagnosing closing space mid-pandemic
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36 REPRESSION AND RESILIENCE: DIAGNOSING CLOSING SPACE MID-PANDEMIC<br />
IDEAS FOR ACTION<br />
• Increase support to civil society for advocacy on democratic <strong>space</strong> issues, including by mainstreaming<br />
civil society participation across different geographic programmes of the NDICI <strong>and</strong> incorporating policy<br />
dialogue - led by civil society - into budget support or sectoral cooperation programmes, for instance in<br />
the health sector.<br />
• Protect <strong>and</strong> safeguard human rights defenders <strong>and</strong> journalists, by strengthening monitoring <strong>and</strong><br />
reporting mechanisms on human rights violations, as well as boosting rapid assistance <strong>and</strong> protection<br />
mechanisms, including the issuance of emergency visas, temporary relocation <strong>and</strong> emergency funding<br />
for defenders at risk.<br />
• Create a dedicated team to support the organisation of civil society consultations, so as to root EU<br />
action in local expertise, but overcome the practical difficulties <strong>and</strong> time-consuming nature of organising<br />
consultations. Meaningful civil society consultations need to be the basis of any democratic recovery<br />
strategy, complemented by dialogues with political parties, media actors <strong>and</strong> other non-state actors like<br />
religious groups.<br />
• Enforce conditionality clauses that are already in place, by periodically assessing bilateral agreements<br />
<strong>and</strong> budget support contracts to verify whether countries (still) live up to their obligations on international<br />
human rights conventions <strong>and</strong> identify cases where the EU can use its leverage to encourage an opening<br />
of democratic <strong>space</strong>.<br />
5. Embed accountability <strong>and</strong> transparency in support to democratic institutions <strong>and</strong><br />
watchdogs<br />
Transparency <strong>and</strong> participation were immediately compromised in the crisis response, showing that much more needs<br />
to be done to embed open government principles <strong>and</strong> citizen engagement mechanisms into all aspects of public<br />
administration <strong>and</strong> decision-making, including public procurement processes. In countries where governments will try<br />
to cement the lack of participation <strong>and</strong> transparency beyond the p<strong>and</strong>emic, oversight actors will have to fight hard to<br />
bring it back. This calls for an increase in support to oversight actors - including judiciaries, legislatures, civil society <strong>and</strong><br />
media - in order for them to more effectively counter attacks on democratic <strong>space</strong> <strong>and</strong> provide oversight.