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Civic Space Monitor

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Civic Space Monitor CLOSED REPRESSED OBSTRUCTED NARROWED OPEN Foreword In the two years I have been at CIVICUS, some of the most important but also most difficult conversations I have been involved have been around what does the ideal methodology for understanding and comparing conditions for civil society across countries and time look like. Finding a robust, timely and cost- effective methodology is almost the ‘Holy Grail’ for those of us working in this area. We and others have tried various ways to do answer this challenge but, none (including our own efforts) have yielded something that does the trick. What follows is yet another attempt; this looking particularly at civic space, built on some creative methods (e.g. the Civic Pulse) and designed to provide a useful, regularly-updated once-stop-shop for anyone wanting to understanding conditions for civil society. We believe that civic space is an important barometer of the health of any society. Its existence implies citizens are valued and have a say in the decisions affecting their lives. Three basic freedoms are integral to the maintenance of healthy civic space: freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly. If these basic freedoms are respected citizens can exercise democratic dissent and meaningfully contribute to the governance of the state. Governments are compelled to respect, facilitate and protect these rights under both constitutional and international law. However the reality is that in many parts of the world civic space remains imperilled. CIVICUS’ State of Civil Society Report 2014 notes in recent times many governments – democratic and authoritarian – have stepped up efforts to restrict civic space using combinations of dubious legislation, demonisation of protest movements and direct harassment of activists and their organisations. Violent attacks on civic activists by state and non-state actors are also on the rise. Clearly, a need exists to more effectively monitor and measure the health of civic space. After all, it is within this critical arena where peaceful disputes continue to play out for more open and democratic societies. A number of key global developments mean that there is renewed interest in understanding civic space. These include global conversations on the Post 2015 development framework, renewed efforts to measure “enabling environment” for civil society in light of commitments made at the 4th High Level Forum on Aid and Development Effectiveness and the Open Government Partnership’s new 1 CLOSED REPRESSED OBSTRUCTED NARROWED OPEN policy to deal with civic space. A number of recent initiatives to collate various methodologies to measure civic space attest to this, including those undertaken by the Transparency and Accountability Initiative and the International Center for Not for Profit Law. CIVICUS is taking a new approach to tracking the quality of civic space in real time. We intend to do this by combining analysis of externally available data sources with our own, internally generated, real-time information from civil society on the ground. This involves the collation of qualitative and quantitative research information, as well as information from interactions with CIVICUS’ partners through our new Civic Pulse initiative. The result, we hope, will be an accurate, responsive and interactive online tool that reflects the reality of civic space in each country. (This approach is explained in more depth in the next section.) CIVICUS has piloted this approach in a study of civic space in southern Africa. This study aims to provide a snapshot of civic space in fourteen southern African countries in early 2015. It also demonstrates the kind of information and analysis on civic space that CIVICUS ultimately hopes to provide through a regularly updated web portal for all countries in the world. This document is however just one step towards developing a global means of effectively monitoring civic space in real time. The ultimate aim of this broader research programme is to allow various stakeholders to better understand the nature of civic space in every country. We also want to be able to respond swiftly to current abuses while identifying future trends and threats. CIVICUS hopes to develop a tool for encouraging best practices, sharing experiences and strengthening citizen ability to defend civic space in their own countries. We need your feedback We are sharing this consultative document with a range of experts on civil society and civic space. Your feedback is invaluable and will help us to make this new CIVICUS tool far stronger. We would be very grateful if you can send us any comments, critiques, questions and suggestions that you have by emailing [email protected] by Monday 1st June, 2015. We hope you share our excitement about this new initiative and we thank you sincerely for taking the time to review what we have done so far. Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah Secretary General 2 CLOSED REPRESSED OBSTRUCTED NARROWED OPEN The Civic Space Monitor In recent years CIVICUS analysis has been at the forefront of global efforts to understand and describe conditions for civil society and civic activism. Our current research employs a number of cutting edge and participatory research methodologies. The Civil Society Index (CSI) is a participatory needs assessment and action- planning tool for civil society that has been implemented in more than 75 countries. It assesses five dimensions: civic engagement, level of organisation, practice of values, perception of impact and the external environment. The two primary goals of the CSI are to enhance the strength and sustainability of civil society, and to strengthen civil society’s contribution to positive social change. The Civil Society Index Rapid Assessment (CSI-RA) is based on a more adaptable methodology to help civil society better assess its strengths, challenges, potentials and needs in a range of different situations and contexts. This flexibility allows the project’s partners to decide on what their most important expected result is and adapt the methodology accordingly, focusing on one or more dimensions of the civil society reality in order to deliver the best value towards the most important process or desired change. Enabling Environment National Assessments (EENAs) conducted in partnership with the International Center for Not for Profit Law (ICNL) take a country-based approach on the legal, regulatory and policy environment for civil society. EENAs describe conditions for civil society at the national level through assessments that are rooted in data collected at the national level and validated by a consensus based, multi-stakeholder process. The EENAs are intended to be springboards for local actors to strengthen the enabling environment for civil society. The Enabling Environment Index (EEI) examines the conditions within which civil society work. Using secondary statistical data, it has ranked the governance, socio-cultural and socio-economic environments for civil society using 17 sub-dimensions and 53 indicators in 109 countries. The EEI is the first index that attempts to measure the long-term conditions that affect the potential of citizens to participate in civil society. Each of these methodologies allows CIVICUS and our partners to comprehensively describe the conditions for civil society in specific countries, at 3 CLOSED REPRESSED OBSTRUCTED NARROWED OPEN specific points in time. These tools also address the concept of civic space although as only one component of broader analysis. The Civic Space Monitor Having recognised both the need for a continuous monitoring tool as well as one that focuses specifically on civic space, CIVICUS has developed the Civic Space Monitor (CSM). In future, the CSM will become our primary tool for tracking the expansion and closure of civic space and for providing alerts and early warning notifications when worrying signals are observed. It will be a continuous, web-based tracking and rating system that we hope will be used by civil society, journalists, government officials, development workers and members of the public. Civic space rating The CSM classifies countries into one of five categories: OPEN, NARROWED, OBSTRUCTED, REPRESSED and CLOSED. While CIVICUS recognises the challenges with slotting countries into one of five civic space related categories, this five- category rating system does allow for important comparisons to be made across time and across geographic space. The table that follows describes the typical characteristics that countries would need to exhibit to be placed into each of the five categories: RATING DESCRIPTION EXAMPLES CLOSED There is complete closure – in law and in practice ERITREA – of civic space. An atmosphere of fear and N. KOREA violence prevails, wherein state and non-state actors alike are routinely allowed to imprison, cause serious physical injury and even kill citizens with impunity for attempting to exercise their rights to associate, peacefully assemble and express themselves. Any criticism of the ruling authorities is severely punished and there is absolutely no media freedom. REPRESSED Civic space is heavily constrained. Active citizens CHINA and civil society members critical of the ruling EGYPT authorities are subjected to the risk of death, injury, harassment, intimidation, surveillance and imprisonment. Although some civil society organisations exist, their advocacy work is regularly impeded. The media is restricted and peaceful assemblies are regularly prevented or broken up, often
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