Publication

This report looks at the attempts to prevent or restrict the activities of foreign governments and/or non-state actors that support local civil society groups, which is dubbed here as “closing [the] space.” While looking at the debate in the UN Human Rights Council and at four case studies – Ethiopia, India, Egypt and Bolivia – the text's authors analyze the normative claims that have been made either to justify restrictions on external civil society support. Unsurprisingly, it's the fragile governments in the Global South that have the biggest concerns about the foreign funding of domestic civil society groups. As a result, the authors conclude that an effective response to the spread of "closing space" can't help but account for these concerns and what precipitates them.