President Nazarbayev in Almaty during the celebration of Kazakhstan People's Unity Day, 2012. (c) Vladimir Tretyakov / Demotix.
When Central Asia makes international news for restrictions on civic freedoms, the headlines are usually terrible. We read that countries attempt to introduce “foreign agents” laws, send trade union leaders to jail and activists to psychiatric wards, that opposition parties are labeled terrorist organizations and so on. The message is clear: civic space is shrinking, and the only way to deal with this seems to be to counteract and combat it.
The headlines indeed look awful, as do human rights records all over Central Asia. But the headlines also focus on the negative. Globally, organizations try to defend civic space by documenting how states restrict the freedoms of association, expression and assembly, and by organizing domestic and international counter-pressure. But is a confrontational approach like this really all we can do in a fragile context like Central Asia? I suggest that we also need to act constructively and focus on opening new spaces. In Central Asia, we are witnessing a growing trend of NGOs working to open new civic spaces, including working together with governments.
