On February 10th, 2017, 18 leading CSOs from the G20 countries co-signed and sent a letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel asking her, ahead of her preparations for the G20 Summit under her presidency, to put civil society on the G20 Summit agenda. Referring to CIVICUS Monitor, the signatories highlight that all G20 member states, but Germany, are facing narrowing down of civic space with CSOs facing undue vilification, threats, arrests, frozen bank accounts, revoked licenses, blocked websites, coerced registrations with government bodies, and closure of their offices, whereas civil society activists fear for their lives, with many disappearing and becoming victims of murder. Simultaneously, they remind Chancellor Angela Merkel on priorities she set for the 2017 G20 agenda, namely that organized civil society plays an important role in communicating the needs of the people to the government and thus ensuring the usefulness and sustainability of political and economic measures. Finally, the signatories pinpoint to the Civic Charter which contains national governments’ obligations to secure civic rights for all people and ask her to ensure that civil society participation is featured prominently on the agenda. Read the full letter here.