Ten years ago, as protests flared across the Arab world, Western governments failed to meet a date with destiny and help nurture dreams of democracy, missing an unprecedented chance to… Read more »
European Union Foreign Ministers have reportedly used the occasion of International Human Rights Day to approve an EU Magnitsky Act after Hungary dropped its objections. The EU has been considering… Read more »
Today, as new democratic movements gather strength elsewhere in North Africa and Tunisia prepares for a presidential election on Sunday, the country’s role as a showcase for democracy in the… Read more »
The European Union may need “broader rules to make sure that the way companies collect and use data doesn’t harm the fundamental values of our society,” tech czar Margrethe Vestager,… Read more »
In the heady days of the Arab Spring, it was easy to get swept along by such naive good intentions and by the promise of social media as a benevolent… Read more »
Attacks on civil society take myriad forms, from legal and regulatory measures to physical harassment, and usually include efforts to delegitimize civil society, note analysts SASKIA BRECHENMACHER and THOMAS CAROTHERS…. Read more »
By banning NGOs from receiving foreign funding, the Russian government has forced them to seek financial support at home. But state grants undermine civil society’s independence, notes Andrey Kalikh, a… Read more »
Why can’t the UN get more done to promote freedom? Council on Foreign Relations analyst Elliott Abrams asks. The answer is clear: so many member states are themselves dictatorships… Read more »
Police and spy chiefs from China to the Middle East, a Ukrainian oligarch and a former president of Panama are among the people a coalition of human rights groups wants… Read more »
Why are some governments cracking down on civil society or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)? By our count, 39 of the world’s 153 low- and middle-income countries enacted restrictive funding laws between 1993 and… Read more »