closing civic space

How are some civil society organizations (CSOs) able to pivot and innovate in the face of political hostility and funding withdrawal, while others shrink or become inactive? It posits that it’s not just the external environment, funding, or degree of political pressure, but attributes intrinsic to each CSO that narrows the range of possible responses. It is based on sample of CSOs in Czechia, Hungary and Bulgaria that faced political pressures and funding withdrawal between 2010 and 2019. CSOs responded in three ways: reduced staff and expenditures, replaced lost funding while operating in a similar way, or reframed their work, changing their activities and communications to find new audiences. CSOs were more likely to pivot when they had missions and identities that didn’t require specific activities, decision-making structures that allowed input while being able to come to a consensus, and leadership willing to try new approaches and the ability to reach different audiences. As CSOs around the world experience a massive decrease in funding while facing increasing political hostility, this research provides important insights for practitioners seeking to support CSOs to build resilience and sustainability.

Civil society in Zambia occupies a contested yet critical space within national policy processes.  These pivotal moments illustrate civil society's capacity to influence political outcomes, even amid systemic marginalization and institutional exclusion. The paper begins by conceptualizing civil society, distinguishing it from government and private sector actors, and emphasizing its role as a non-profit, citizen-driven force for public accountability and social change. It then explores the breadth of CSO engagement across sectors including health, education, gender equality, environmental protection, and constitutional reform highlighting their contributions to service delivery, policy advocacy, and democratic oversight. Despite these contributions, civil society in Zambia faces significant barriers: political hostility, limited access to formal policy platforms, resource constraints, and public misperceptions. These challenges have led some to question whether CSOs hold any meaningful space in national policy-making. However, this article argues that such a view overlooks the strategic, grassroots, and often informal influence that civil society exerts. Ultimately, the paper concludes that CSOs are indispensable to Zambia's democratic architecture. Their ability to amplify marginalized voices, foster civic engagement, and hold power to account makes them essential partners in policy formulation and implementation. Recognizing and strengthening civil society's role is not only a democratic imperative it is a prerequisite for inclusive and responsive governance.

This study examines the digital violence faced by organizations
working on women's issues in Egypt, focusing on the digital risks they
encounter due to the nature of their work. Utilizing a theoretical
framework based on vulnerability indicators and risk-related impact
indicators, a novel predictive score—The SecDev Foundation’s
Feminist Organizations’ Cyber Risk Barometer (FOCRB)®
—was
developed to assess the likelihood of an organization becoming a
target of digital violence and potential mitigation measures. This tool
offers a new method to gauge potential risks by analyzing key aspects
of an organization's operational profile. The study is grounded in real-
world data from organizations operating in Egypt and includes
detailed case studies to validate and refine the framework, providing
critical insights into the digital threats these organizations face.
Keywords: digital violence, cyber threats, Egypt, women, feminism, civil
society resilience, civil society vulnerability, social backlash, women Empowerment

The paper offers an analysis of ad hoc acts on major sports events. International sports organizations often insist that candidate countries enact ad hoc legal acts regulating the organization of a sports event as a pre-condition for attributing the right to organize the event in that country. States accept these conditions of the sports federations and introduce the required rules, equipping them with binding legal force – being a specific type of “atypical” acts of parliament.

The ongoing transformation of the world’s energy systems requires an international monitoring to evaluate the transformation processes and to identify transferable leading practice policies. For this purpose, an independent scientific expert commission should be established for the G20. By actively involving political decision-makers in the discussion of the final results a broad basis of support can be ensured. The Climate and Energy Action Plan for Growth agreed at the G20 Summit in Hamburg recognizes explicitly the main proposals of this paper. The paper provides a broader discussion how to assist the G20’s energy transformation processes and describes steps towards implementation.

Author: Green Livelihoods Alliance
Research Consultants:  Yasmin O. Hatta, Elizabeth Y. Pua, Edwin O. Hatta and Aimee Ting
A key assumption in the Theory of Change (ToC) of the GLA Forests for a Just Future programme is that effective forest conservation and Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IP&LC)-led forest governance can only be achieved in a context where civil society organisations (CSOs) and IP&LCs can act in a safe operational space.

The survey looked into the OECD dimensions of open civic space: civic freedoms; citizen/CSO participation; CSO-enabling environment; media and digital rights, and freedom and security of those who speak up. It provided useful insights into how GLA partners in the 11 countries of implementation
experience civic space and the ability to exercise their human rights.

This summary report highlights the main findings from the survey. We would like to highlight the following key take-aways:
• The survey showed that GLA partners experience difficulties in all their civic freedoms, in particular Access to Information, (Women) Environmental Human Rights Defenders ((W)EHRDS) Protection, Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Assembly. GLA partners and communities experienced all
types of retaliation, ranging from physical attacks to political repression. Some pressing issues include restrictive legislation (e.g. on foreign funding), red-tagging, Strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPPs) (cases filed against individuals or organisations who speak out on issues of
public interest or concern to intimidate them and inflict costs), negative framing, misinformation / fake news and cyber bullying.
• GLA partners face many types of restrictions, both formal (legal, regulative, administrative) and informal (e.g. intimidation, stigmatising, loss of legitimacy). Many IP&LC leaders and (W)EHRDs are subject to arbitrary arrests and assault, retaliatory litigation and even death. The top three difficulties experienced by GLA partners are Access to Information, Threats to (W)EHRDs and Loss of Legitimacy and Criminalisation.
• An aspect that is very important to understand in this regard are the power inequalities that GLA partners deal with. Combating deforestation and related human rights violations requires the ability of CSOs and IP&LCs to stand up against vested interests. Structural power inequality between
corporate actors (e.g. mining and plantation companies) and government elites on the one hand, and IP&LCs on the other, is a major underlying cause of deforestation, displacement of people from their lands and human rights violations.
• Although GLA’s work on civic space is mainly captured under Pathway C (civic space) in our ToC, a lot of our activities under Pathway A (IP&LC forest governance & rights) and B (addressing drivers of deforestation) also contribute to ‘enhancing civic space’. GLA’s approach is multi-faceted, both preventive and responsive and despite the very challenging context, the Alliance’s efforts towards securing the civic space for CSOs and (W)EHRDs, so that they can stand up for their rights, livelihoods and forests, have in many cases enhanced the safety & security of our partners. We also prevented the adoption of several laws and policies that would have further restricted civic space in some countries, and have made progress at the EU level, for instance on due diligence legislation for companies.

If you require further information on this report, please contact: Eva Duarte Davidson, Senior Programme Coordinator GLA (evadd@milieudefensie.nl)

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) also known as the third sectors have become important tools for societal development, peace and unity. Unfortunately, in most fragile states the CSOs" efforts have not yielded significant result due to the colossal challenges they face in such weak democratic environment. As these kinds of states mingle in corruption and human right abuses, so the civil societies serving within them suffer from lack of enabling environment and fair play. It was on this note that this article presents reflective instrumental theory that analyse the relationships between states and civil societies as positive, neutral and negatives. The determinant of the nature of the relationship depends on the state"s mode of operandi. In standard democracies, the relationship is positive, in semi-standard democracies it"s neutral and in substandard democracies it"s negative. This article adopts content analysis to argue that while the democratic attitudes of advanced democracies aided the complementary roles of the civil societies; the undemocratic behaviours of fragile democracies negates those roles. It is based on the premise that the higher the level of adherence to the principles of democracy; the higher the effectiveness of civil societies and vice versa. The article suggests that for civil societies to triumph the people should stand for them and the government must enact rules that will make the environment favourable for them to function.

The development of this toolkit would not have been possible without the invaluable support provided by various partner organisations and initiatives within the FemPawer project. This toolkit was created in response to the needs of participating organisations to develop, document, and share tools and experiences that have been used and tested by partners to navigate the changing civic space in several Arabic-speaking countries. Thus, it was crucial to record the challenges faced by these organisations, the strategies they employ to overcome these challenges, and to present this information in a manner that enhances the exchange of knowledge and experience among partners.

Editors: Wolfgang Dörner and Regina A. List Chapter 6, The Law, Security and Civil Society Freedoms, co-authored by Brett Kyle, UNO faculty member. This book looks at the role that civil society organizations play in dealing with conflict and violence. The authors argue that in most of the prevalent conceptualizations the conflict dimension of civil society is either downplayed or inadequately addressed. They contend that the ability to deal with conflict is at the heart of organized civil society; in the political process, one of civil society\u27s key functions is to express and mediate between different interests, thus contributing to political decision-making. The chapters draw on detailed, empirical data from the CIVICUS Civil Society Index - a unique comparative data-set drawn from 25 countries, which has not previously been made publicly available. It examines the different ways violence has been manifested in civil societies, the meaning of violent protest and the impact of ...

Recent decades have witnessed a global cascade of restrictive and repressive measures against nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). We theorize that state learning from observing the regional environment, rather than NGO growth per se or domestic unrest, explains this rapid diffusion of restrictions. We develop and test two hypotheses: (1) states adopt NGO restrictions in response to nonarmed bottom-up threats in their regional environment (“learning from threats”); (2) states adopt NGO restrictions through imitation of the legislative behavior of other states in their regional environment (“learning from examples”). Using an original dataset on NGO restrictions in ninety-six countries over a period of twenty-five years (1992–2016), we test these hypotheses by means of negative binomial regression and survival analyses, using spatially weighted techniques. We find very limited evidence for learning from threats, but consistent evidence for learning from examples. We corroborate this...

This paper argues that periodic waves of crowding-in to 'hot' issue fields are a recurring feature of how globally networked civil society organizations operate, especially in countries of the Global South. We elaborate on this argument through a study of Indian civil society mobilization around climate change. Five key mechanisms contribute to crowding-in processes: (1) the expansion of discursive opportunities; (2) the event effects of global climate change conferences; (3) the network effects created by expanding global civil society networks; (4) the adoption and innovation of action repertoires; and (5) global pressure effects creating new opportunities for civil society. Our findings contribute to the world society literature, with an account of the social mechanisms through which global institutions and political events affect national civil societies, and to the social movements literature by showing that developments in world society are essential contributors to na...

This paper explores the methodological options for assessing or measuring the impacts of closing civic space on development. It summarizes a review of literature on the forms and spread of efforts to restrict civic space, and its impacts on civil society actors and their contributions to development. It briefly discusses the conceptual framework developed, which focuses on understanding the nature of the fit between states and civil society actors in relation to development, and on how this differs according to the distribution of political power, and the degree of elite commitment and state capacity to deliver broad-based development. The paper then discusses methodological options for assessing or measuring the impacts of changes in civic space for development, noting the challenges of crossnational regression analysis, including the mixed record of research on the relationships between growth or development and democracy or other political variables. It explains the rationale for in-depth country case studies of episodes of contention in areas of civic activism that are most likely to impact on frontline development outcomes (poverty, hunger, etc). It then discusses the methodological learning from two country case studies in Pakistan and Ethiopia. The paper concludes with a discussion of the nature and limitations of available data sources, and sketches suggestions about two approaches to tracking and analysing the impacts of changes in civic space for development. The first is qualitative comparative case analysis across a set of 12-20 countries, to analyse the effects of specific episodes of contention around civic space in relation to development outcomes, using longitudinal tools and rigorous comparative techniques to establish with confidence the causal mechanisms through which closures of civic space impact on development outcomes.. The second is building NGO/CSO capacity to track the impacts of new restrictions on their activities and contributions in a grounded, locally-relevant way.

The ongoing transformation of the world’s energy systems requires an international monitoring to evaluate the transformation processes and to identify transferable leading practice policies. For this purpose, an independent scientific expert commission should be established for the G20. By actively involving political decision-makers in the discussion of the final results a broad basis of support can be ensured. The Climate and Energy Action Plan for Growth agreed at the G20 Summit in Hamburg recognizes explicitly the main proposals of this paper. The paper provides a broader discussion how to assist the G20’s energy transformation processes and describes steps towards implementation.

The authors recommend that the G20 target innovative green-technology SMEs as an opportunity to promote financial de-risking while addressing Paris Agreement commitments and UN Sustainable Development Goals. This should be achieved by creating signals for private investors through: (1) a reporting system that can help monitor the scale-up of green-technology SMEs; (2) the use of public funds to signal innovative green-technology SMEs to investors; and (3) the inclusion of SMEs in the design of green finance platforms. By implementing these recommendations, the G20 will ensure that innovative, low-carbon SMEs become attractive, low(er)-risk investment opportunities for the private sector.

Social science has a major task in today's world: there is a long list of major gains in the situation of human beings on a global scale, as measured against the Millennium Goals; but the UN (2019) does, however, also list serious problems that lie ahead. Challenges to the Environment, and to the systems of international transactions, especially, demand action on a global scale, as does the increasing social and economic inequality. New forms of governance are clearly required to meet these challenges, but the UN does not attempt to identify which organizational measures are necessary and possible in this respect. A major effort of social science is required to start the process of that identification. Such an effort has been initiated by the International Panel of Social Progress. In its 2018 Report, the IPSP analyzes in depth the concept and situation of social progress-a broad term covering much of the agenda also for the global challenges-and then proceeds to outline in depth the possible ways ahead for progressing, the organizational forms and global/societal governance measures. A Manifesto on Social Progress, published subsequently by five leading IPSP researchers, presents the overall picture in a readable, compressed manner, and discusses organizational forms for reaching social progress. This paper departs from the analyses in the Manifesto, and then tries to go further, attempting to identify the forces that work against social progress, against the governance and regulation formats that must be developed to enable social progress? Those forces-active and powerful regressive forces-can be identified by comparing some of the major developments in contemporary governance. Using examples from countries around the globe, the paper shows how serious these regressive forces are, illustrates how they work, and points to mechanisms that make them emerge and grow. Moreover, the paper suggests a particular role for the social sciences in this context. A true social science cannot be nihilistic or passively compliant. It can and must point to myriads of organizational forms that have been employed to advance the situation of people in all sorts of societies. Social science has to be practical and normative-if not pointing the way, at least mapping the course.

This report introduces findings from ten digital rights landscape country reports on Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Sudan, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Cameroon. They analyse how the openings and closings of online civic space affect citizens’ digital rights. They show that: (1) when civic space closes offline citizens often respond by opening civic space online; (2) when civic space opens online governments often take measures to close online space; and (3) the resulting reduction in digital rights makes it impossible to achieve the kind of inclusive governance defined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We know far more about openings and closings of online civic space in the global North than we do in the global South. What little we do know about Africa is mainly about a single country, a single event, or single technology. For the first time, these reports make possible a comparative analysis of openings and closings of online civic space in Africa. Th...

Ideally, democracies are built on the ability of all segments of society to participate in civil society to enhance their community’s well-being or to claim rights. Participation in civic and political activities is a key feature of equal citizenship. Sociopolitical features of a city may influence participation, developing different citizenship practices at the local level. Cities will differ in the types of CSOs that thrive, the particular grievances that CSOs address and the types of civic activities that prevail. This study examines how different sociopolitical settings in Turkey impact the development of active citizenship practices among participants in civil society organizations (CSOs). The conditions under which CSO participation may develop active citizenship is key to understanding the potential transformation of hierarchical and passive conceptualizations and practices of citizenship at the national level in Turkey. The study is based on semi-structured interviews conduc...

Among scholars and practitioners working in international development, there is much interest in civil society advocacy. Seeking societal change through development projects may lead to results, but these do not address fundamental underlying conditions that shape development, such as legal rights, cultural understandings, or market relations. In contrast, advocacy is a way to address these, seeking to transform the legal, political, and social conditions that shape development. I define what I call advocacy for development as a "wide range of activities conducted to influence decision-makers at different levels" (Morariu & Brennan, 2009: 100) with the overall aim of combatting the structural causes of poverty and injustice. I include here as decision-makers not only people holding positions of power in public and private institutions, but also individuals and groups who hold more informal power, such as communities and

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected almost all aspects of societies across the world. However, its impact on volunteering and people's motivations to volunteer is still a relatively unexplored area. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it became evident that volunteers can contribute to a well-functioning society in a variety of ways. Volunteers around the world have helped others by activities such as sewing masks or shopping for the elderly, or by encouraging fellow citizens to follow anti-pandemic measures. Many surveys have shown the importance of the involvement of community volunteers and organizations as a support to the community in times of humanitarian crisis or disaster. And although research on volunteering in Slovak ethnology has been of interest, the question of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on volunteering in Slovakia has not yet received much systematic attention. Based on the results from ethnographic research, the text aims to outline how volunteers from the I'm Here for You program, operating in the Slovak capital Bratislava, reflected the changes brought about by the pandemic concerning volunteering, while attention is also given to the impact of pandemic-related constraints on motivations to volunteer.

A good functioning of civil society is one of the key points for the future of global governance and cover a central role for the governance of climate change. Nevertheless, according to recent studies, civil society suffers some limitations: a certain fragmentation, lack of accountability and, above all, diverse national interests linked to its participation to Institutions of Global Governance. We are going through a crucial period for many of the problems affecting the planet. At the same time, this moment is a test case also with regard to civil society that should overcome current limitations. In this context, the emergence of BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa) represents a new challenge in global governance. But is civil society taken into enough consideration in these countries?

We are currently in the middle of multiple global crises that leave us with a different outlook than the optimism that characterized the decades of the 1990s and early 2000s. The belief in continuous global democratic and developmental progress has been replaced by concerns for irreversible climate change, global geopolitical instability, democratic decline, new manifestations of authoritarian populism, and a reversal of developmental gains in human rights, health, education, and welfare (CIVICUS, 2021;

A fogyatékos emberek társadalmi mozgalma történetileg befolyásolta a liberális demokráciák fejlődését. A fogyatékossággal élő embereket érintő progresszív szakpolitikai változások a fogyatékosügyi mozgalom nyomására történtek. Ugyanakkor nem világos, hogy a civil érdekvédelmi térnek az erodálódó demokráciákban tapasztalható zsugorodása mennyiben érinti a fogyatékosügyi mozgalmat. Tanulmányunk a hazai fogyatékosügyi mozgalom 1998 óta eltelt időszakát vizsgálja a szakpolitikai bevonódás szintjeire és az érdekvédelmi lehetőségek változására fókuszálva. Tapasztalt mozgalmi szereplőkkel készült interjúkra (15) építve, és szakpolitikai dokumentumok vizsgálatával megállapítható, hogy a hazai fogyatékosügyi mozgalom bevonódása jelentősen romlott a 2010-es évek kezdete óta. A konzultációs platformok kiüresedtek, a kormányzati reakciótól tartva a szervezetek rendszeresen öncenzúrát gyakorolnak a kommunikációjukban, és kerülik a kormányzat kritikáját. A mozgalom széttöredezett. A fogyatékossággal élők igényeinek emberi jogi keretezése egyre kevésbé preferált kormányzati oldalról, az emberi jogokkal szembeni mozgalmi hozzáállás apatikus. Szűkült a média és a független emberi jogi intézmények elérése is.

Ensuring ‘health for all’ remains a persistent and entrenched global challenge. G20 governments are in a position to elevate the priority accorded to health, and acknowledge the centrality of health to attaining the SDGs. The authors call on G20 leaders to build nations that are more inclusive and less divided, by: adopting a Health- in-All-Policies approach, prioritizing the most vulnerable, engaging citizens in policy processes, and filling health data gaps.

Despite widespread acknowledgement of the value of sustainability, the transition towards more sustainable economies and societies remains a challenge around the world. Civil societies play an important role not only in supporting government efforts on sustainability by 'filling gaps' and raising social awareness, but also in pioneering new practices and disrupting particular governmental or corporate strategies, as well as engaging and empowering previously marginalised individuals and groups. Yet civil society is not always a champion of sustainability nor of democracy; these actors may of course also destabilise innovations, depoliticise sustainability issues by reifying certain concepts or approaches and reinforce social hierarchies and patterns of exclusion that can undermine any transformative potential and bolster the unsustainable status quo. This Special Issue is therefore dedicated to interrogating what we see as the ambiguous, yet critical, role played by civil societies in sustainability politics. This introductory paper intends not only to draw attention to some of the arguments, theories and challenges found in each of the individual papers collected here, but also to pull on the common threads that run through them, as well as to unpick some of the different uses of the key terminology that they employ. We aim, moreover, to highlight the inevitable tension between the 'democratic side' and the 'dark side' of civil society and its politics of sustainability.

This report introduces findings from ten digital rights landscape country reports on Zambia. They analyse how the openings and closings of online civic space affect citizens’ digital rights. They show that: (1) when civic space closes offline citizens often respond by opening civic space online; (2) when civic space opens online governments often take measures to close online space; and (3) the resulting reduction in digital rights makes it impossible to achieve the kind of inclusive governance defined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This report introduces findings from ten digital rights landscape country reports on Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Sudan, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Cameroon. They analyse how the openings and closings of online civic space affect citizens’ digital rights. They show that: (1) when civic space closes offline citizens often respond by opening civic space online; (2) when civic space opens online governments often take measures to close online space; and (3) the resulting reduction in digital rights makes it impossible to achieve the kind of inclusive governance defined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We know far more about openings and closings of online civic space in the global North than we do in the global South. What little we do know about Africa is mainly about a single country, a single event, or single technology. For the first time, these reports make possible a comparative analysis of openings and closings of online civic space in Africa. Th...

The comment reviews and critically assesses the current EU debate on how to respond to foreign interference. We start by analysing the legal framework for restricting foreign interference, in particular by considering recent judgments by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the European Court of Justice (ECJ) that limit the range of legitimate restrictions. Then, we discuss the political risks associated with an overall broad and vague EU approach to restricting foreign interference. In the concluding section, we summarise our criticism and suggest a more cautious approach to foreign interference.

Zusammenfassung Gesetzliche Maßnahmen im Bereich der Auslandsfinanzierung von zivilgesellschaftlichen Organisationen werden inzwischen als zentraler Bestandteil von schrumpfenden zivilgesellschaftlichen Räumen angesehen. Allerdings existiert in der Literatur bisher kein Konsens über die Angemessenheit eines expliziten staatlichen Eingriffs in diesem Bereich. Der Artikel entwickelt deswegen einen konzeptionellen Rahmen, um den einschränkenden Charakter von staatlichen Eingriffen empirisch präziser als bisher bestimmen zu können. Wir plausibilisieren unser konzeptionelles Argument anhand von sechs kurzen Fallstudien zu Deutschland, Österreich, der Türkei, Ungarn, Uruguay und Venezuela. Damit tragen wir in dreifacher Art und Weise zur Debatte über schrumpfende zivilgesellschaftliche Räume bei. Wir zeigen erstens, dass gesetzliche Maßnahmen in Bezug auf die ausländische Finanzierung von Zivilgesellschaft nicht zwangsläufig als Teil eines weltweiten repressiven Trends anzusehen sind. Zweitens schlagen wir eine neue analytische Einordnung vor, die über das bisher dominante binäre Verständnis hinausgeht, welches gerade im Global Süden jeglicher Anpassung gesetzlicher Maßnahmen in diesem Bereich repressive Tendenzen unterstellt. Drittens versuchen wir eine Sicht der internationalen Menschenrechte zur Vereinigungsfreiheit mit einer auf nationalen verfassungsrechtlichen Normen fokussierten Perspektive in Verbindung zu bringen, um damit empirisch-analytisch präziser auf die in vielen Ländern existierenden rechtsnormativen Unterschiede zwischen diesen beiden Ebenen aufmerksam zu machen.

Local groups are an important component in democratic societies. Through group activities and discussion, group members are linked to citizens with common attributes or interests and advance collective concerns. As information technology and high speed Internet access have become cheaper and easier to use, citizens have been turning to the Internet to communicate with fellow citizens and to access information. As part of this trend, people have also been sharing information at the local community group level. We have been examining the use and impact of these technologies by local community groups as part of a larger study of public deliberation. We used content analysis and interview data to investigate web-based communication and information exchange among members of local community groups in Blacksburg, Virginia.). As part of the larger analysis, we investigated new web technologies such as blogs, e-forums, and RSS feeds to understand current state-of-the-art media that affect group communication, online public discussion and civic participation as mediated by local community groups. The content analysis and interview data showed areas of convergence and divergence. There is a downside to the optimistic views toward the potential of the Internet to build up a strong civil society. We explore both sides of these arguments. We link the findings to prior research oncivil society and information technology.

The literature review undertaken for this paper was funded under two separate commissions, for the ACT Alliance and for UK Aid from the UK government. The paper is published in association with the Action for Empowerment and Accountability Research Programme (A4EA). A4EA focuses on fragile, conflict and violence affected settings to ask how social and political action for empowerment and accountability emerges in these contexts, what pathways it takes, and what impacts it has.

What is the origin of the narrative of human rights? What interests do they represent? Can human rights help reverse the devastating consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on impoverished children? To an- swer this question, we will discuss the origin of the narrative and discourse of human rights and their po- tential as enforcement mechanisms for reversing vulnerability, preventing abuses and promoting solidarity and justice. Despite their promise, the past decade has seen a backlash against human rights on almost every front, worsened by the coronavirus outbreak which is causing a widespread global disruption and exacerbating pre-existing inequalities. We consider the impact on vulnerable children in Latin America, which has greatly worsened since the spread of coronavirus. Finally, we discuss the impact of pandemic on children ́s rights, as well as initiatives relating to increasing their level of protection and guaranteeing to the exercise of their rights, which have been severe...

My interview with "CIVICUS" discussed the ongoing suppression of activism in Egypt, highlighting the conditions for civil society actors, how they have organized under repression, and the challenges faced by the activists who work from abroad.

This summary explanation of civil society is drawn from a literature review conducted for two separate research commissions on closing civic space and the implications for development, one for ACT Alliance, and the second for the Department for International Development (DFID). See Hossain et al. 2018 or here for more details.

In this introductory essay to the special issue on civil society in authoritarian and hybrid regimes, we review core themes in the growing literature on shrinking or closing space for civil society. We discuss the role of civil society organizations (CSOs) as agents of democratization and note the emergence of dual, at times apparently conflicting policy postures within authoritarian regimes (restriction and repression for some CSOs vs. financial support and opportunities for collaboration for others). We posit that different conceptual perspectives applied to civil society can help account for the duality of authoritarian postures and examine repercussions for three key subgroups of CSOs: claims-making (or advocacy) NGOs, nonprofit service providers and regime-loyal NGOs supporting often populist and nationalist discourses.

Predkladaný výstup Bariéry členstva v odboroch 3: Stratégia budovania nových kapacít odborov v Slovenskej republike je finálnym výstupom projektu Bariéry členstva v odboroch. Jeho základným cieľom je analýza potenciálu odborov Slovenskej republiky a vypracovanie stratégie v súvislosti s budovaním nových kapacít vzhľadom na adaptáciu odborov potrebám modernej spoločnosti. Na základe výsledkov analýzy budú koncipované cielené odporúčania zamerané na posilnenie personálnych kapacít a zvýšenie kvality činnosti a aktivít odborov. Odporúčania sa nachádzajú na konci každej tematickej kapitoly. Vzhľadom na jej charakter sú odporúčania všeobecné alebo sa rozdeľujú z časového hľadiska na krátkodobé, strednodobé a dlhodobé. Tento projekt sa realizuje vďaka podpore z Európskeho sociálneho fondu a Európskeho fondu regionálneho rozvoja v rámci Operačného programu Ľudské zdroje.

The paper examines the explanatory potential of the social origins theory advanced by L. Salamon and H. Anheier. This examination follows two tracks. The first track is a comparative investigation of the conceptual affinity between the social origins, on one hand, and the theories of welfare regimes and varieties of capitalism, on the other. We argue that the conceptual affinity between these three theories lies in the fact that they explore what could be referred to as vertical and horizontal interactions between state and market. Vertical interactions are based on the legitimate coercion by government authorities, while horizontal relations develop at the initiative of their autonomous members. The social origins approach introduces yet another essential dimension, that of civic self-organization, into the analysis of vertical and horizontal interactions embodied in state/market relationships. Similarity of underlying conceptual foundations might suggest that all three theories would generate similarly strong academic interest in reexamining their analytical tools and applying their approaches to the diversity of new social and economic realities. The literature indicates that both the welfare regimes and varieties of capitalism have generated robust academic discussions, whereas the conceptual and analytical potential of the social origins remains relatively less explored. It has become particularly evident in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic which gave rise to a number of studies that apply the frameworks of the welfare regimes and varieties of capitalism to examine crosscountry differences in government social welfare policies. However, the social origins theory seems not to have generated comparably rich research testing its explanatory power in the new conditions triggered by the pandemic challenges. To address this gap, the paper follows a

During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments across the globe implemented severe restrictions of civic freedoms to contain the spread of the virus. The global health emergency posed the risk of governments seizing the pandemic as a window of opportunity to curb (potential) challenges to their power, thereby reinforcing the ongoing, worldwide trend of shrinking civic spaces. In this article, we investigate whether and how governments used the pandemic as a justification to impose restrictions of freedom of expression. Drawing on the scholarship on the causes of civic space restrictions, we argue that governments
responded to COVID-19 by curtailing the freedom of expression when they had faced significant contentious political challenges before the pandemic. Our results from a quantitative analysis indeed show that countries who experienced high levels of pro-democracy mobilization before the onset of the pandemic were more likely to see restrictions of the freedom of expression relative to countries with no or low levels of mobilization. Additional three brief case studies (Algeria, Bolivia and
India) illustrate the process of how pre-pandemic mass protests fostered the imposition of restrictions on the freedom of expression during the pandemic.

Within the context of closing civic spaces, conventional thinking offers limited opportunities as improvements are mostly incremental or in most cases almost non-existent. Conventional thinking tends to lead to conforming to cultural norms in behaviour and thinking. Based on the volatile nature of the environment, it has become apparent that what is needed is something more creative and transformational in terms of how we think and create solutions. This is where the concept of strategic thinking becomes essential.