The closing of civic space is not just about people’s right to organize or protest in individual countries. This year’s Global Risks Report, published last week by the World Economic Forum ahead of its annual Davos meeting, looks in detail at the risks posed by threats to governments clamping down on fundamental civic freedoms. The report points out that, “a new era of restricted freedoms and increased governmental control could undermine social, political and economic stability and increase the risk of geopolitical and social conflict.”
Indeed, the recently launched CIVICUS Monitor shows that more than 3.2 billion people live in countries in which “civic space” is either closed or repressed. It also shows that conditions very few countries—16 out of 134 countries with verified data—are genuinely open. This means that scope for citizen action is constrained and getting worse in much of the world, including some countries where one might least expect it. The spillover effect to other countries also cannot be understated.
Scope for citizen action is constrained and getting worse in much of the world, including some countries where one might least expect it. Glaringly absent from the WEF report, however, are any examples of countries where these trends are evident, so here are five examples from five different parts of the world of countries that demonstrate just how much citizen action is under threat in 2017.
