2010 - Optimism or Pessimism? In the pages that follow you will see a list of CIVICUS' key accomplishments in 2010. Looking back on them I am pleased, even a little surprised, that so much was possible despite the resource constraints and mounting challenges. CIVICUS, like most of civil society, is weathering a perfect storm - severe cutbacks in funding, especially for work that is not easily quantifiable, sharp increases in the threats and challenges to which we must respond, a growing wave of hostile action against civil society, even in those countries that have been described as progressive, and a stasis in global governance that prevents progress on the critical issues facing humanity and our planet. Expectations of the two headline events of 2010 - the 10 year review of the Millennium Development Goals in New York and the 16th UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP 16) in Cancun - were dampened by the fragility of the so-called economic recovery, the crises in the Eurozone, the fiscal crunch confronting developed economies and the experience at COP 15 in Copenhagen in 2009. As a result, it was easy to declare both summits qualified successes. Each did, in fact, yield some cause for cheer in new pledges and commitments and in the very fact that states continued to engage each other in multi-lateral fora. Less in evidence were mechanisms to ensure these pledges do not meet the fate of all the unkept promises of the past 4 decades. Less optimism emanated from the meetings of the G20 in Canada and South Korea, the first clouded by a severe security crackdown on demonstrators, the second mired in exchange rate tensions. Both events were marked by their impermeability to meaningful civil society participation and the increasing intolerance of dissent in established and emerging democracies alike. Like the annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF, the G20 summits essentially kicked several balls, including consensus on a Financial Transaction Tax, down the road to 2011. Meanwhile, for ordinary citizens on every continent, the gap between states and nations grew ever wider as voters, taxpayers, students, workers, minorities of various descriptions and women found themselves at best ignored and at worst violently silenced. The inchoate anger at the patent injustice of privatised profits, socialised losses, sharp increases in disparity and an utter lack of democratic accountability sought outlet in agitations against pension laws, fee hikes, corruption, price rises, election outcomes, displacement, even railway stations. At their most disturbing they took the form of revived tribalisms targeting ethnic, religious and sexual minorities, immigrants and indigenous peoples. Even as the UN Human Rights Council affirmed the right to freedom of association, an initiative in which CIVICUS was proud to have played a significant role, dozens of governments on every continent introduced new legislative and financial constraints on civil society. In addition, journalists and activists for human rights, democracy, freedom, transparency and accountability were subjected to extra-judicial measures ranging from physical attacks, intimidation, unlawful detention, kidnappings, disappearances and assassinations. Every global index of freedom, governance and democracy, including CIVICUS' Crisis Response and Early Warning Systems, registered continuing declines. No subject attracted greater interest or support at the 2010 CIVICUS World Assembly. The outcry of joy that accompanied Aung San Suu Kyi's release was drowned out by the belligerent perse- cution of Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange, and silenced by the absence of Liu Xiaobo and his family from the awards ceremony for the Nobel Prize for Peace. The contradictions between the pronouncements and practice of those preaching freedom of expression could not have been more glaringly obvious. As we have already witnessed with torture, denial of due process, unlawful breaches of privacy and other violations of civil liberties that have marked the so-called war on terror, and with the dilution of ethical positions caused by the exigencies of economic pragmatism in the emerging geo-political order, these new erosions of freedom by those who profess to be defenders of liberty are already providing encouragement and impunity to repressive regimes everywhere. Equally apparent were both the power of the new media to render transparent the opaque machinations of those in power, as well as the willingness of the corporations that facilitate the use of these technologies to bow to pressure from their respective governments. Warren Buffet's claim that the receding economic tide had revealed which businesses had been swimming naked could now be applied to governments whose true commitment to values of freedom and human rights stand exposed. Throughout 2010 it was hard to resist being overwhelmed by pessimism and instead focus on the gains we have collectively made. Doom and gloom, after all, serve only to induce apathy and spread scepticism. Things could clearly have been much worse were it not for the courage, determination, conviction, commitment and solidarity that civil society in its myriad forms has brought to bear in resisting the onslaught and in advocating for justice and genuine reform, especially in the realms of governance - corporate and political - nationally and inter- nationally. Measured against our collective purpose to advance the rights of people to live in dignity, free from both want and fear, and to have an increasing say in determining their own future and that of all our fellow inhabitants of this planet we call home, the two most significant achievements of 2010 were probably the conversion of mainstream experts to solutions that they might have dismissed as utopian only a few years ago and the activation of citizens who have hitherto been disengaged from the debate. It seems to me that acknowledging the gravity of the threats confronting us in every realm - economic justice, political freedom, social cohesion and ecological sustainability - makes it more likely that we will find the strengthened resolve and the motivation to seek the radical redesign of strategies necessary to address them collectively. The victories of 2010, small and large, the growing numbers of citizens in every country who recognise the injustice of the economic and political orders and the opportunities they present for principled joint action in 2011 and beyond, are a useful starting point. Transcending pessimism and optimism, perhaps the key trait that marked 2010 was determination. With gratitude for your support in 2010 and a promise of continued courage, resolve and commitment from all at CIVICUS in 2011, In solidarity, Ingrid Srinath |
