[p2p-research] Fwd: Governments Must Do More to Protect Civil Society

[Ryan Lanham]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ARTICLE 19 <press at article19.org>
Date: Mon, Jul 5, 2010 at 3:26 AM
Subject: Governments Must Do More to Protect Civil Society
To: rlanham1963 at gmail.com




[image: logo]     [image: logo]    [image: logo]    [image: logo]

For immediate release – 5 July 2010

Governments Must Do More to Protect Civil Society

KRAKOW, POLAND, 5 JULY 2010 - ARTICLE 19, CIVICUS, the International Center
for Not-for-Profit Law, and the World Movement for Democracy welcome US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s statement on “Civil Society: Supporting
Democracy in the 21st Century” and urge all governments to take immediate
measures to reverse the growing backlash against civil society and human
rights defenders.

In her keynote speech to the High-Level Meeting of the Community of
Democracies on July 3rd, Hillary Clinton highlighted the role of civil
society as one of three pillars of democracy: *“Progress in the 21st century
depends on the ability of individuals to coalesce around shared goals, and
harness the power of their convictions. But when governments crack down on
the right of citizens to work together, as they have throughout history,
societies fall into stagnation and decay.” * She lamented the growing trend
of repressive laws against civil society and human rights defenders: *“Over
the last six years, 50 governments have issued new restrictions against
NGOs, and the list of countries where civil society faces resistance is
growing longer.”*

ARTICLE 19, CIVICUS, the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, and
the World Movement for Democracy are members of an international working
group on enabling and protecting civil society, chaired by the Government of
Canada, under the auspices of the Community of Democracies. They state that
*“in our work and countries all over the world, we have observed an alarming
increase of regressive legislative measures against civil society, attacks
and killings of human rights defenders, and impunity for these crimes. Such
violations have come on top of increasing restrictions on foreign funding
for human rights and democracy initiatives by CSOs in their countries.” *

ARTICLE 19, CIVICUS, the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, and
the World Movement for Democracy call for:
1. All governments to address key contributing factors to this negative
trend. In particular, we call on them to ensure that security and
counter-terrorism efforts do not result in violations of fundamental human
rights, including the rights to association and freedom of expression;
2. UN member states to establish a United Nations Special Rapporteur to
defend freedom of association and the rights of civil society;
3. The implementation of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 4-point action
plan, including:
• The creation of an objective and independent mechanism for monitoring
repressive measures against civil society;
• Increased role of the United Nations Human Rights Council in protecting
civil society and freedom of association;
• Increased commitment by regional and other organizations, such as the OAS,
the EU, the OIC, the African Union, the Arab League, others, to do more to
defend the freedom of association; and,
• Coordinated diplomatic pressure, including through a rapid response
mechanism to address situations where freedom of association comes under
attack.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

• For more information please contact:
o Agnes Callamard, Article 19 (agnes at article19.org)
o Netsanet Belay, CIVICUS (netsanet.belay at civicus.org)
o Douglas Rutzen, International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (
drutzen at icnl.org)
o Ryota Jonen, World Movement for Democracy (ryota at ned.org)

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-- 
Ryan Lanham
rlanham1963 at gmail.com
Facebook: Ryan_Lanham
P.O. Box 633
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(345) 916-1712
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