Data-based report touts best practices on civic space

By Telesphor Magobe , The Guardian
Published at 06:00 AM Jan 28 2025
The report, which identifies over 2,500 incidents of violations of civic freedoms, covers a period from November 1, 2023 to October 31, 2024.
Photo: File
The report, which identifies over 2,500 incidents of violations of civic freedoms, covers a period from November 1, 2023 to October 31, 2024.

A data-based report that surveys 198 countries and territories recommends the adoption of best practices on civic space. It calls on governments across the world to stop using excessive force against peaceful demonstrators and pre-empting them on the freedom of peaceful assembly, and ensure any restrictions imposed on them comply with international human rights standards.

The report highlights 33 recommendations: 17 recommendations to governments, six to United Nations and international bodies, one to the private sector, and six to donors. In this article only some recommendations to governments are mentioned. 

CIVICUS Monitor in its report titled “People Power Under Attack 2024” published at the beginning of December last year picks holes in civic space practices across the world. It says about 70 per cent of people in sub-Saharan Africa, and 72.4 per cent of the people in the world live under repressive conditions. 

It rates 81 countries and territories across the world in “the worst two categories of having repressed and closed civic space, indicating widespread and routine repression of fundamental freedoms.” About 30 per cent of the global population, it adds, lives in countries “where civic space is closed.” 

Accordingly, the report recommends to governments to take steps “to foster a safe, respectful and enabling environment in which civil society activists and journalists can operate freely without fear of attacks, harassment, intimidation, or reprisals, in line with international human rights commitments.” 

It also calls on governments to ensure freedom of expression is protected in all forms by harmonising national laws with international human rights instruments and refrain from censoring both mainstream and social media. 

“Ensure that any restrictions are subject to oversight by an independent and impartial judicial authority and in accordance with due process and standards of legality, necessity and legitimacy,” the report recommends.

CIVICUS Monitor’s report says civic space conditions in sub-Saharan Africa remain “repressive” as 43 out of 50 countries and territories have “obstructed, repressed or closed civic space.” 

The report, which identifies over 2,500 incidents of violations of civic freedoms, covers a period from November 1, 2023 to October 31, 2024. 

Open civic space attributes include respect for the freedoms of opinion and expression, assembly and association, and the right to petition the government. Others include situations in which citizens can voice their concerns freely to various government officials and those officials can provide sufficient information and notice on the decisions affecting the people, according to World Justice Project Rule of Law Index (WJPI, 2024). 

As H.W.R Wade and C.F. Forsyth emphasise in their book “Administrative Law (Eighth Edition, 2000)” “Every act of governmental power – every act which affects the legal rights, duties or liberties of any person, must be shown to have a strictly legal pedigree.” 

So, when government officials so conduct themselves, they allow civic space to thrive as citizens find space to exercise their rights and make their voices heard without being arbitrarily restricted and state authorities work on the issues raised. In this way, governments deliver to public expectations by being efficient, effective, and transparent. They can also improve social services.

In this report, all eight East African Community (EAC) member states are rated in “the repressed civic space category” in 2024. However, Burundi is rated in the repressed category in 2022-2024, but was rated in the closed civic space category in 2018-2021. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is rated in the repressed civic space category in 2020-2024, but was rated in the closed civil space category in 2018-2019. 

Kenya is rated in the repressed category in 2024, but was rated in the obstructed civic space category in 2018-2023. South Sudan is rated in the repressed category in 2022-2024, but was rated in the closed civic space category in 2018-2021.

The rest of the EAC member states are rated in the repressive civic space category since 2018 to date. Each surveyed country and territory is rated either in an open (the highest civic space category), narrowed, obstructed, repressed or closed civic space category (the lowest civic space category). 

Citizens who live in countries where fundamental freedoms are circumscribed are regarded as living “in repressed civic space conditions” because their constitutional rights are hardly protected. Where the situation is worse than this, it is regarded as a “closed civic space” situation. Citizens always gasp for space to exercise fully their rights when their civic space is narrowed, obstructed, repressed or is closed.  

CIVICUS Monitor, which is based in Johannesburg, South Africa, is a participatory research partnership with over 20 civil society research partners which assesses the state of civic space worldwide and offers insights into civic space developments.