Opinions & Features

Four years on, Iran’s democratic struggle still belongs to its people

Opinions & Features
By Asal Abasian, exiled Iranian human rights researcher, journalist and queer feminist writer and Ines Pousadela, CIVICUS Head of Research and Analysis, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.

Public Scrutiny Really Does Help the Unjustly Detained

Opinions & Features
By Mandeep Tiwana, CIVICUS Secretary General and Susan Marx, Chiefs Programmes Officer Across authoritarian regimes and even democracies, state apparatuses frequently achieve the same outcome through formal legal machinery: weaponizing extraordinary counterterror statutes in the name of national security, imposing endless pre-trial detention, and relying on procedural delays to remove dissenting voices from the public sphere.

Accountability and Civic Participation Can Help Advance SDGs

Opinions & Features
By Jesselina Rana, UN Advisor The annual High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) brings together government officials, civil society, and UN agencies to assess progress on the SDGs.

The disappeared are no longer someone else’s story

Opinions & Features
By Susan Marx, Chief Programmes Officer This past weekend, a message came through on Community Action for Resident Equity’s (CARE) Signal group, the network of neighbors I help organize here in Atlanta.

Why solidarity is vital to freeing imprisoned human rights defenders

Opinions & Features
By Mandeep Tiwana, Secretary General and Susan Marx, Chief Programmes Officer Every Aug.

Choosing Courage over Despair: Civil Society Is Notching Up Wins Despite Hostile Conditions

Opinions & Features
By Mandeep Tiwana, CIVICUS Secretary General We live in a world where cruel and unaccountable power is on the ascendant.

What is working to counter democratic regression? Notes from ISTR 2026

Opinions & Features
By Inés M.

From Resilience to Resistance: Why Funding Civil Society Should Be an End in Itself

Opinions & Features
By Mandeep Singh Tiwana, CIVICUS Secretary General and Devyani Kacker, human rightgs lawyer At CIVICUS, we are increasingly being asked by funders how they should respond to this moment of civic regression.

How transnational movements can shield African civil spaces

Opinions & Features
This piece was written by Dr.

The Emergency’s ghost: Why India has been placed on the watchlist of a global civil society network

Opinions & Features
By Mandeep Tiwana, CIVICUS Secretary General  Fifty years ago, India was in the midst of the Emergency.

Guatemala: A Narrow Opening in a Captured Justice System

Opinions & Features
By Inés M.

Communities vs. Datacentres

Opinions & Features
By Andrew Firmin, Editor-in-Chief Few things unite Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters with the Democratic Party’s progressive wing, but datacentres are one of them.

Pride: Once Again a Protest

Opinions & Features
By Inés M.

Lessons learned from Locally-Led Development

Opinions & Features
By Trisha Alexis De Leon The decay of global hegemony shows that things cannot go back to the way they were before.

Justice Is Not for the Elite Alone: Why People Must Organise Themselves

Opinions & Features
A collaborative piece by Trend Asia and LBH Bandung Writing Team: Meike Inda Erlina, Andi Daffa Patiroi 13 March 2026 In this country, Indonesia, justice remains a privilege that eludes the poor and marginalised.

As we watch the World Cup, let’s talk about the global state of civic freedom

Opinions & Features
By Susan Marx, Chief Programmmes Officer The World Cup, the globe’s biggest sporting event, is on our doorstep.

Beyond Rupture: Strategic Choices for the EU in an Era of Global Disorder

Opinions & Features
By Steven Blockmans Abstract Amid renewed great-power rivalry and a fragmenting rules-based order, the EU faces mounting pressure to safeguard and transform multilateral governance.
Building Pro-Civic Space Narratives Through Collective Action: Asia Centre & CIVICUS
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Building Pro-Civic Space Narratives Through Collective Action: Asia Centre & CIVICUS

Opinions & Features
By Asia Centre Building and sustaining civic space requires more than advocacy, it depends on how civil society tells its stories.

The Ballot Box Illusion: How Authoritarians Repackaged the African Ballot

Opinions & Features
By Chibuzor Nwabueze, Programme and Network Coordinator of the Digital Democracy Initiative and Mighulo Masaka, Project Officer, Host Liaison of the Digital Democracy Initiative In many countries across Africa, people have recently lined up to vote.
When African Women Lead, Democracy Breathes

When African Women Lead, Democracy Breathes

Opinions & Features
By Tanya Lupuwana, Communications Officer - Narratives and Networks Across Africa, women keep democracy alive.

Visibility Alone is Not Liberation

Opinions & Features
By Sarah Omoyemwen Ajokpauwu, FoPA (Freedom of Peaceful Assembly) Learning and Communications Intern.

The WTO Between Two Worlds: Strategic Choices for EU Action

Opinions & Features
By Clara Weinhardt, Michal Parízek Abstract The WTO is navigating parallel worlds: one in which members work to reform the institution, and another in which the very foundations of the multilateral trading system are being dismantled.

Why a Woman at the Helm Makes a More Credible, Effective UN

Opinions & Features
By Jesselina Rana, CIVICUS' UN New York Advisor  For 80 years, men have exclusively led the United Nations.

❝As Human Rights Council turns 20, the UN’s founding promise – ‘We the Peoples’ – is under attack

Opinions & Features
By Sigrid Lipott, CIVICUS UN Advisor The United Nations’ foundational commitment to human rights and civic participation is under growing strain, and those meant to protect it are not doing enough, writes Sigrid Lipott, UN adviser to the human rights alliance Civicus.

Can the EU-India Partnership Be One of Values Too?

Opinions & Features
By Mandeep Tiwana, CIVICUS Secretary General EU and India have an opportunity to transform their recently inked trade agreement into a meaningful partnership that benefits the world.

Act Now or Lose Momentum: Delivering on COP30’s Unfinished Climate–Biodiversity Agenda in 2026

Opinions & Features
By Noa Lameire   Abstract At COP30 in Brazil, Parties committed to advancing discussions on the synergies between the climate and biodiversity crises, but political divisions have stalled meaningful progress.

Strengthening Local Voices in the Digital Age

Opinions & Features
In today’s digital age, against a backdrop of shrinking civic space and declining democracy worldwide, the role of local civil society actors in promoting inclusive and equitable access to democratic processes cannot be overemphasised.

Courage in Testing Times

Opinions & Features
A message from CIVICUS Secretary General, Mandeep S.

2025 Unwrapped: Democracy and the In Between

Opinions & Features
While elections were held and institutions nodded, civil society bore the weight of democracy, often with too little support to navigate the shrinking spaces in which it operates.

ICE Enforcement, FBI Raid Show Government is Afraid. Democracy is in Trouble.

Opinions & Features
By Susan Marx, Chief Programmes Officer Standing in solidarity — defending the right to protest, rejecting dehumanisation, supporting civil liberties organisations — is not radical.

Guinea’s Path to Electoral Autocracy

Opinions & Features
By Inés M.

Uganda: Democracy in Name Only

Opinions & Features
By Inés M.

The Fight Against Femicide: Victories and Setbacks in 2025

Opinions & Features
By Inés M.

A Grim Year for Democracy and Civic Freedoms – but in Gen Z There Is Hope

Opinions & Features
By Mandeep Tiwana, CIVICUS Secretary General 2025 has been a terrible year for democracy.

Myanmar’s Sham Election: Trump Legitimises Murderous Military Dictatorship

Opinions & Features
By Inés M.

Anchoring Global AI Governance: How the EU Can Leverage the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence

Opinions & Features
By Wade Hoxtell   Abstract As AI evolves faster than regulation, the Council of Europe’s new treaty offers a rare chance to anchor technology in democratic values.

Shrinking Space for Civil Society at the UN

Opinions & Features
By Sigrid Lipott, UN Advisor (Geneva) and Jesaselina Rana, UN Advisor (New York) This piece explores the increasing restrictions facing civil society within UN spaces, highlighting access barriers, shrinking participation, and the urgent need for stronger protection and inclusion of civil society actors in multilateral processes.
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Killing Climate Lies That Kill

Opinions & Features
By Nipuna Kumbalathara, CIVICUS Communications Lead.

As UN Rights Council Probes Sudan Atrocities, It Should Take a Hard Look At Its Members

Opinions & Features
By Sigrid Lipott, CIVICUS UN Advisor As the Human Rights Council prepares to judge grave violations in Sudan, some of its own members – responsible for abuses themselves – are evading accountability, hurting the UN body’s credibility, writes Sigrid Lipott, UN adviser to CIVICUS.

One Piece: Activism’s Missing Piece?

Opinions & Features
Sailing for Justice: How did an Anime Pirate Flag Become a Protest Banner in Indonesia? By Vincy Mighulo Masaka and Takaedza Tafirei Ever wondered how fandoms shape different cultures? Think about it: in the music world, fandoms dictate the latest fashion trends, with K-Pop, EDM, and Rock fans wearing their leather jackets and devotion.

Mali’s Blocked Transition: Five Years of Deepening Authoritarianism

Opinions & Features
By Inés M.

UN Might Tolerate Netanyahu, and White House Might Welcome Him, But He’s Still Guilty of Genocide

Opinions & Features
By Mandeep Tiwana, CIVICUS Secretary General  Benjamin Netanyahu took the stage at the UN General Assembly just over a week after an independent UN Commission concluded that Israel has committed genocide — the worst crime under international law.

Multilateralism Minus the People: 80 Years of the UN’s Broken Promise

Opinions & Features
By Jesselina Rana, CIVICUS UN New York Adviser  Last week, the United Nations (UN) marked its 80th anniversary against the backdrop of an unprecedented global crisis.

UN at 80: Civil Society Must Have a Say in the Struggle for Renewal

Opinions & Features
By Andrew Firmin, CIVICUS Editor-in-Chief, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.

Outsourcing Cruelty: Trump’s Mass Deportation Machine

Opinions & Features
By Inés M.

Mamdani’s stand on genocide is more important than dynamics of arresting Netanyahu

Opinions & Features
By Mandeep Tiwana, Secretary General of CIVICUS  No leader responsible for mass atrocities enjoys greater impunity on the international stage than Benjamin Netanyahu.

Ctrl + Alt + Resist: Reducing the Pixels of Silence

Opinions & Features
By Vincy Mighulo Masaka and Asma Darwish “Don’t shoot to kill, shoot the leg.

Charlie Kirk’s killing: Political violence, guns and the fight for cohesion in US

Opinions & Features
 By Mandeep Tiwana, CIVICUS Secretary General The assassination of well-known conservative commentator, Charlie Kirk on September 10 has exposed significant fault-lines in American public life.

Togo’s Young Generation Challenges Six Decades of Dynastic Rule

Opinions & Features
By Inés M.

Overtourism: Civil Society Mobilising

Opinions & Features
By Andrew Firmin, CIVICUS Editor-in-Chief, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.

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