From rising repression on the streets to the battle for the internet, in 2018 the spaces where citizens seek to freely express themselves and organize are increasingly contested. What was a trend has become a global emergency and “‘a universal phenomenon, no longer restricted to autocracies and fragile democracies,” writes Danny Sriskandarajah, Secretary General of CIVICUS. The struggle to take back and create civic spaces for expression continues and not just in repressive contexts. The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2018 Annual Risk Report identifies threats to social cohesion as being amongst the leading risks to the health of countries and economies. These threats include crackdowns on the ability of people to speak out, organize and protest. Against a backdrop of rising state authoritarianism and unchecked corporate power, a range of tactics designed to check dissent have continued to spread globally. Read more here
Source: Innovation for Change