Posts Tagged ‘cooperation’
October 22, 2019
The
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace pubished on 22 October 2019 a working paper by
Saskia Brechenmacher and
Thomas Carothers entitled “
Democracy,Defending Civic Space: Is the International Community Stuck?”. It concludes that as space for civil society continues to close, the international community must redouble its efforts to defend the right of human rights defenders to hold governments around the world accountable. The
Executive Summary:
Civic Space Continues to Close
Since the mid-2000s, civic space has come under attack in many countries around the world. To counter this trend, transnational actors that support civil society have responded in many ways—from exerting diplomatic pressure and building international norms to providing emergency funds for activists. Despite these efforts, governments continue to impose legal and extralegal restrictions amid a worsening larger political environment for civil society. Closing civic space now appears to be just one part of a much broader pattern of democratic recession and authoritarian resurgence. The international response seems stuck: some useful efforts have been undertaken, but they appear too limited, loosely focused, and reactive.
Areas of Progress in the International Response
- Research and knowledge dissemination: Timely information about civil society restrictions and overall trends is now widely available. Funders, policymakers, and relevant multilateral organizations are generally more aware of the problem; some actors have carried out internal strategic reviews and trainings to strengthen their programmatic and policy responses.
- Support for local resistance and adaptation: Major funders have established or expanded emergency funds for persecuted rights activists and organizations. Some have also initiated programs to help civic actors adapt to regulatory, political, and legal pressures, while some have examined ways to offer more flexible funding. Several new transnational coalitions and initiatives have been set up to share lessons and lead joint campaigns.
- Diplomatic pressure and international policy changes: Western governments have sometimes applied pressure on countries that are closing civic space, and they have supported advocacy in international bodies such as the United Nations. Civil society advocates have successfully pushed for reforms to harmful counterterrorism regulations, and some have begun engaging private sector actors on the importance of protecting civic space.
Factors Limiting the International Response
- Lack of conceptual and strategic clarity: Ongoing confusion over the root causes of closing civic space impedes efforts to develop a more unified strategy. Diverse actors disagree on whether tackling the challenge will require addressing the global political backlash against progressive causes or the overall global democratic recession, or whether a more focused approach would be more effective.
- Countervailing interests: Most Western governments still do not strongly prioritize closing civic space in their foreign policy agendas. They often refrain from escalating diplomatic pressure on repressive governments for fear of damaging their geopolitical, security, or economic interests. The loss of U.S. leadership on the issue has been particularly damaging.
- Closing space at home: Civic space is now under threat in many established democracies, and the international repercussions are profound. Western governments that lash out against domestic critics are less likely to speak out against civil society restrictions abroad, and they have less credibility when they do so. Their actions also set a negative example for leaders in other parts of the world.
- Inadequate scale: The resources committed to fighting the problem have been insufficient. Funders have also generally failed to embed their responses into a broader strategic framework. Explanations include a weak appetite for political risk among funders, the cross-cutting nature of the problem, and a lack of clarity on what a large-scale response might look like.
- Working in silos: Weak coordination and information sharing between different parts of the assistance community persist. Obstacles include the diverging policy and organizational interests within and between governments, as well as divisions in the wider funder community, including between human rights organizations and development and humanitarian actors.
- Struggles to change aid practices: Implementing far-reaching changes in aid practices has proven difficult, due to bureaucratic inertia, risk aversion, and narrower methods of monitoring and evaluation.
- Chasing a moving target: The problem of closing space continues to evolve quickly, which makes it difficult for the international community to anticipate new openings and threats. For example, international actors have been slow to react to the spread of new technological tools for restricting civic space online and offline.
Policy Recommendations
- Develop a strategic framework that links closing civic space to other key foreign policy challenges, articulates a positive vision of civic space globally, and offers tailored tactical guidance. Such a strategy should differentiate short-, medium-, and long-term priorities and distinguish between different types of political contexts.
- Improve foreign policy alignment by issuing specific guidance on defending civic space to embassies, systematically integrating the issue into diplomatic training and senior leadership briefings, designating a senior official to spearhead interagency coordination on civic space–related issues, and amplifying the voices of civil society actors, particularly in restrictive contexts.
- Avoid setting negative precedents by ensuring that domestic legislation does not threaten civic space. Nongovernmental actors should build cross-border alliances to share knowledge and resources, engage lawmakers in established democracies who stigmatize civil society, and champion transparency and accountability in internal practices and external partnerships.
- Bolster coordination among concerned transnational actors by evaluating existing mechanisms, investing in new platforms or tools for information sharing and institutional learning, expanding country-level networks, and forging new partnerships between governmental and private funders.
- Adjust funding practices to ensure a balance between support for long-term institution- building and catalytic funding, and track how much funding goes directly to local organizations as core versus project support. Funders should continue to expand flexible funding strategies for hostile environments, work with intermediaries that can reach a wider range of partners, and reduce grantees’ administrative burdens.
- Anticipate new opportunities and threats by, for example, monitoring and recognizing examples of positive reform, developing targeted roadmaps that identify opportunities and flashpoints in collaboration with embassies or local partners, and investing in technological know-how.
For the full text of this working paper, see: https://carnegieendowment.org/files/WP_Brechenmacker_Carothers_Civil_Space_FINAL.pdf
See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2019/05/05/civil-society-and-human-rights-ngos-are-fighting-back-but-against-odds/ and https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2019/02/21/amnesty-launches-report-on-laws-designed-to-silence-human-rights-defenders/
https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/10/22/defending-civic-space-is-international-community-stuck-pub-80110
Posted in books, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Civil society, civil space, cooperation, diplomacy, donors, funding, Human Rights Defenders, international human rights movement, NGOs
November 16, 2018
E
uromed Rights announced on 15 November 2018 that representatives from over 150 civil society organisations, the majority of which coming from the South of the Mediterranean region, will gather in Brussels on November 20-21 for the First Majalat Civic Forum in order to debate four regional themes: Good Governance; Security and Countering Violence; Migration; Economic Development and Social Dialogue.
After its launch in Jordan last September, Majalat will move to the heart of the European Union in order to initiate a three-year cycle of regional dialogues, in the presence of the Commissioner at the European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn.
Majalat is thus the first civil society run process of this kind. The word itself stands for ‘spaces, opportunities, fields and domains’. Supported by the EU, the project aims at promoting structured dialogue between civil society in the South Mediterranean region and the EU institutions. It also aims at enhancing regional exchanges between civil society in the region.
The project has been coordinated and set up by six partner organisations: Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND), Arab Trade Union Confederation (ATUC), EuroMed Network France (REF), EuroMed Rights, Forum for Alternatives Morocco (FMAS) and SOLIDAR.
The whole process will be facilitated by an Interactive Digital Platform.
In addition to the six partners, six organisations with a regional scope are invited to sit in the Steering Committee: Arab Campaign for Education for All, Arab Network for Human Rights Information, Disabled People International, Maghreb Observatory on Migration Transparency International and Syrian Citizens’ League.
For the programme see: Programme
https://mailchi.mp/euromedrights/majalat-first-ever-eu-south-mediterranean-forum-with-civil-society-in-lead-to-be-launched-in-brussels-enarfr?e=1209ebd6d8
Posted in EU | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Brussels, civil society organisations, cooperation, dialogue, euroMed Rights, Majalat Civic Forum, Mediterranean, meeting, north africa
March 7, 2014
There seems to be almost unanimous agreement in the human rights movement that in outreach it will have to focus more on the visual aspects. In my end of year post in 2013 (see below) I tried to show to what extent this is already happening but a lot more systematic work is needed. Therefore it is good to be able to announce that True Heroes Films [THF] has concluded a coöperation agreement with the Geneva-based International Service for Human Rights [ISHR] with the purpose of supporting the visualisation process. As from Monday 10 March 2014 THF will operate a professionally equipped studio in the offices of the ISHR, strategically located close to the UN in Geneva. This will allow THF to provide images-related services, not just to the host but – against preferential fees – to all human rights organisations in the Geneva area. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in films, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, ISHR, THF | 1 Comment »
Tags: audiovisual communication, cooperation, film portraits, films, Geneva, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, human rights films, human rights movement, images, International Service for Human Rights, ISHR, NGOs, streaming, THF, True Heroes Films, video clips, visualization techniques, webcast
June 20, 2013
As far back as October 2012 in Lima, Peru, during the 7th Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED – U.S.A) organised a workshop on one of my favorite topics: how the existing efforts for and among human rights defenders (HRDs) could more effectively meet the needs of endangered human rights defenders (HRDs) Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Antoine Bernard, ASEAN, cooperation, cooperation with UN, definition of HRD, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, International Criminal Court, International Federation for Human Rights, international procedures, international protection, Non-governmental organization, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Swee Seng Yap, UN, World Movement for Democracy, World Organisation Against Torture
August 23, 2012
More than seven civil society organizations have merged to form a coalition known as the South Sudan Human Rights Defenders Network (SSHRD).
The SSHRD –was conceived in a three day meeting of the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders that ended in Juba on Friday.
The Protection Officer for the East and Horn of Africa Human Right defenders, Yona Wanjala said it is important for the SSHRD to join and work closely with East Africa regional groups.
Wanjala urged SSHRD to put their safety first-adding that a human rights defender is valuable to his/her own society when alive.
“So we feel we should equip them with skills, knowledge and tools to be able to assess the risk in respect of their working environment. In most cases human rights defenders do think mostly of the people whose rights they do protect but they never think about their security, yet the work of human rights defenders exposes them to a lot risks and threats because in one way or the other they step on peoples interest. So these people in most cases perpetrate violence against human rights defenders. It’s only prudent that he who defend others should think about his security because we get from the backer ground that you are a better human rights defenders alive but not death.“
Human rights groups form coalition.
Posted in Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: cooperation, Human Rights Defenders, NGOs, South Sudan, SSHRD, Wanjala
August 18, 2012
A few months ago I drew your attention to the annual effort by the UN to collect information on the harassment of those who cooperate with the United Nations (its representatives and mechanisms, including the Special Rapporteurs). Now – on 13 August 2012 – the report has been published as GA A/HRC/21/18 and makes grim reading. Several countries (such as Bahrain, Colombia, Iran, China, Sri Lanka) continue to punish or intimidate persons who had the courage to stand up in the United Nations and accuse their country of human rights violations. Government controlled media routinely refer to them as ‘traitors’ and that is the least of the bad treatment given. One would wish that the UN would be even more outspoken and concrete in protecting its own sources!
full document in PDF:
Click to access A-HRC-21-18_en.pdf
Posted in UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Bahrain, cooperation, retaliation, Sri Lanka, UN, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Human Rights Council