“Democracy will not flourish unless citizens can freely engage in politics and social change,” an Eminent Persons Group of political leaders and activists said today. Yet the civil society groups that are vital to building and defending democracy face unprecedented threats, they note, in a formal endorsement of the Defending Civil Society report, co-authored by the World Movement for Democracy and the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law.
The group comprises former Canadian premier Kim Campbell, former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the Dalai Lama, former Czech dissident and president Vaclav Havel, Egyptian dissident Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.
“In addition to traditional efforts to suppress dissent and civil society activism, various governments have now begun imposing sophisticated legal or quasi-legal measures to restrict the work of nongovernmental organizations,” they observe.
The group endorses the report and the principles it articulates for informing appropriate state-civil society relations, including the right of individuals to form and join civil society organizations; the right of such organizations to function without state interference; the rights to free expression and advocacy and to communicate freely with domestic and international partners; the right to seek and secure resources, including across borders; and the state’s obligation to protect civil society rights.
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