CSW Monthly Bulletin provides a global forum to protect the rights of civil society
Release Date: 18 April 2005
By Kumi Naidoo, CIVICUS Secretary General
Last week, the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, while facing growing allegations of electoral fraud, refused to sign a draconian NGO law that CIVICUS and several other organisations in Africa and beyond have rallied against over the last six months. Mugabe actually termed the law which was approved by his colleagues in parliament as "obnoxious".
While we may welcome the rise of democratically elected governments (even though there are deep flaws in the quality of those elections including in long standing electoral democracies) in various parts of the world where civil society has played a substantial role for change, we also witness with great sadness a pattern of illiberal democracies where the right to basic civil liberties and political rights are being increasingly constrained and infringed upon.
CIVICUS believes that a strong, active and vibrant civil society can play a crucial role in the vitality of participatory democracy and thus the need for special attention to protect civil society, especially where it comes under grave threat.
The realisation that international exposure of violations and pressure on violators is an effective means to bring about change has inspired CIVICUS to monitor and disseminate information about these situations through our Civil Society Watch (CSW) Programme.
CIVICUS now produces a Monthly Bulletin in which you will be able to find the latest updates for this programme and a comprehensive list of country situations where civil society is facing challenges when its civic existence is endangered. The CSW programme aims to mobilise quick, principled and effective responses to events that threaten civil society’s fundamental rights to collectively express, associate and organise throughout the world.
We therefore invite you to join us in exposing and attempting to prevent or overturn those violations where the rights and freedoms of citizens and civil society are threatened by informing us about any such threats or attacks in your country or region.
The CSW Monthly Bulletin will provide a forum to hear your voices and disseminate as widely as possible cases in which the existence of civil society is threatened worldwide.
The CSW Monthly Bulletin is now available in English in MS Word format. We hope to have the Bulletin available in other languages soon. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our members and partners around the world for your support and the numerous contributions which have made this bulletin possible.
If you would like to send an appeal or share information with us regarding issues affecting civil society in your region, please contact the CSW team at cswatch@civicus.org or visit www.civilsocietywatch.org.
