CIVICUS Lens: 26 March 2026

MARCH 2026 HIGHLIGHTS

We’re excited to announce the publication of our 2026 State of Civil Society Report, offering comprehensive analysis of key global trends, their impact on human rights, and civil society responses. Access the full report here and share it widely within your networks! It’s also available in French and Spanish.

Our report documents a world where unaccountable power is on the offensive: powerful states are dismantling the international rules-based order, impunity is becoming normalised in conflicts from Gaza to Sudan and an axis of tech oligarchs and authoritarian leaders is using its online reach to spread disinformation and tighten surveillance. The withdrawal of funding from multilateral institutions, the weaponisation of AI and the deliberate obstruction of climate action aren’t isolated crises but interconnected aspects of a political epoch in which elites are consolidating power at the expense of human rights. Those being hardest hit are the people who already have the least access to rights.

Yet resistance is rising to meet this assault, and this report documents its breadth and power. People across the world are choosing courage over compliance. A new generation is rising to take action. Civil society advocacy, evidence collection and litigation are countering regression and securing victories, demonstrating the value of sustained collective action. In a time of manufactured hopelessness, this report makes the case for resistance.

The report draws extensively from the articles and civil society interviews published by CIVICUS Lens over the past year. Access some of our latest updates from the links below.

For more analysis of civil society action, visit our website. If you have any feedback or think there’s something we should cover, contact us at . Please share this newsletter with your contacts and encourage them to subscribe. If you like what we’re doing and you’re not already a member, please consider joining CIVICUS to help make our alliance even stronger.

ARTICLES

The Commission on the Status of Women’s latest session was the most contested ever. For the first time, its outcomes were put to a vote, with the USA voting against. The US government also tried to push through amendments targeting reproductive health and a resolution that would have imposed a highly restrictive definition of gender. The Trump administration has eliminated US$60 billion in foreign aid, withdrawn from UN Women and helped set in motion a proposal to merge UN Women with the UN Population Fund. Over 4,600 civil society delegates at the meeting held firm, but the human rights commitments they defend are under rising threat.

Bangladesh’s first credible election in almost two decades has brought the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) back to power in a landslide. Observers generally assessed the vote to be relatively peaceful and competitive. Yet the outcome suggests less a democratic transformation than a restoration of a dynastic two-party system, falling short of the hopes of many young people whose protests led to the ousting of an authoritarian regime in 2024. With the youth-led National Citizen Party winning just six seats and the former ruling party banned from the race under contested legal and political conditions, Bangladesh’s new government needs to show it’s prepared to do things differently this time.

Nepal’s 5 March election delivered a landslide victory to the relatively new Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), ending years of fragile coalitions in which three established politicians repeatedly rotated as prime minister. The election was called early after the previous administration collapsed under pressure from Generation Z-led protests that mobilised last September against corruption, economic strife, poor governance and unaccountable politicians. RSP leader Balendra Shah, a 35-year-old former rapper, promises to be a very different prime minister from his predecessors. But with little parliamentary opposition, civil society, including Gen Z-led movements, must hold him to account.

Israel’s assault on Iran, launched with the USA, has shifted the global spotlight away from its ongoing violations of the rights of people in Gaza, where killing continues despite the October ceasefire. Civil society is sustaining pressure on governments but faces an attritional campaign of state repression. Plans by Donald Trump’s Board of Peace to impose an external governance structure on Gaza, designed with no Palestinian input, constitute the latest denial of the rights of Palestinian people. There can be no peace without justice, and there must be no reconstruction without Palestinian agency.

INTERVIEWS