A message from CIVICUS Secretary General, Mandeep S. Tiwana
As we navigate a period of profound tumult, moments of collective reflection and strategic alignment are especially important. Our recent Board meeting, held in Abuja, Nigeria from 23 – 25 June, offered an opportunity to reflect on the state of our alliance and the work required to strengthen our collective impact in the years ahead.
Although civic space restrictions remain acute in many parts of the world, people’s resistance movements are continuing to demonstrate immense resilience, imagination and courage. Against this backdrop, the Board’s discussions were both practical and forward-looking. Key decisions included the approval of our 2026–2027 budget, in-principle agreement to hold the next International Civil Society Week in Latin America in October 2027, and greenlighting engagement on the next set of strategic priorities for the CIVICUS alliance to run from 2027–2032. The Board also encouraged us to create better connections between Gen Z-led protests, digital technology and people’s movements, recognising that new forms of organising are shaping civic action in profound ways.
We are grateful to Brian Builders Youth Development Initiative, who graciously hosted us at their premises, and the CIVICUS staff members who worked diligently behind the scenes to ensure the meeting was productive and meaningful. A key highlight was the opportunity to connect with CIVICUS members during a high energy 'Meet and Greet'. A significant proportion of our members come from Nigeria’s vibrant civil society. We concluded the week with a visit to Nigeria’s Parliament to interact with the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Civil Society and Development Matters, facilitated by Nigeria Network of NGOs (NNGOs).
2026–2027 Annual Plan
I am also pleased to share the 2026–2027 Annual Plan Narrative. This document reflects the collective effort, dedication and vision of teams across CIVICUS. This year we challenged ourselves to do things differently as across the world, an axis of unaccountable political leaders and economic elites is tearing up the international rulebook, weaponising technology and defunding the institutions designed to hold states to account. International humanitarian law is being flouted in plain sight. Impunity for atrocities is becoming normalised. The funding architecture that sustained civil society is collapsing through deliberate political choice, and those who already have the least access to rights are bearing the heaviest cost.
Team Highlights
The Global Solidarity Cup campaign
Every four years, the World Cup captures the attention of billions of people across the world, making it one of the biggest shared moments on the planet. On 11 June, we launched the Global Solidarity Cup to harness that attention, using the tournament's built-in audience and momentum to reach people who would otherwise not encounter civic space issues and civil society's work.
The idea is simple: use the language and emotional register of football to tell the story of civic space in ways that travel further than a report ever could. By meeting people on the platforms and in the countries where they already are, the campaign seeks to broaden awareness and deepen public understanding of why civic freedoms matter.
It hasn't been frictionless. Algorithm restrictions and Meta's content moderation have repeatedly throttled or flagged our content. Navigating this has been one of the campaign's biggest learnings — directly impacting our reach and how we can communicate.
Despite these challenges, the campaign has exposed CIVICUS's work to nearly 1 million people, including in countries and demographics our usual channels rarely reach. We see as a real win even accounting for the moderation headaches.
Stand As My Witness Campaign
As we mark six years of the Stand As My Witness (SAMW) Campaign to correspond with Nelson Mandela Day, we invite you to join a global show of solidarity with human rights defenders facing detention, persecution, and reprisals for their peaceful work.
Relaunched by CIVICUS in 2020 building on our pre-existing Civil Society Behind Bars initiative, Stand As My Witness is a global solidarity campaign that highlights the cases of human rights defenders who have been arbitrarily imprisoned for their brave activism. Through collective advocacy and international pressure, the campaign has contributed to the release of more than 31 human rights defenders worldwide. Join us in calling for the release of all unjustly imprisoned activists and demand an end to attacks against HRDs. Take Action
UN Engagements in Geneva and New York
We also concluded a productive UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva where our UN Hub highlighted structural challenges to civil society participation urging action on reprisals against activists, speaking out for women’s participation in public life including in sports and raising awareness of extreme civic space violations in places as diverse as Eritrea and Venezuela. In the Universal Period Review, we noted declines in Georgia and lack of progress in Rwanda. Read the full report of our activities here.
In New York, we are continuing to push for the appointment of a feminist woman to be the next Secretary General of the UN. During the UN High Level Political Forum we closely followed conversations on what comes after the Sustainable Development Goals when they expire in 2030. Our position is clear, the post 2030 agenda should embody the needs and aspirations of 8 billion people around the world and the contemporary challenges they face whether from rising oppression, misogyny, concentration of wealth, climate harm or digital exclusion. The current SDGs should form the foundation or basis for the post 2030 agenda just as the MDGs were incorporated into the SDGs.
Nelson Mandela Leadership Forum
To mark Nelson Mandela Day, alongside CIVICUS colleagues I had the joyful pleasure of attending the inaugural Nelson Mandela Leadership Forum and hear New York Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani. A few things stood out from his remarks: solidarity is not perfection; choosing courage over comfort is a conscious choice; justice must be more than an ideal; and vitally, oppressed people cannot be told that their humanity is conditional.
Mamdani reminded us that while today everyone claims to be against apartheid, it was not so during the bad old days. It was only in 2008 that the official label of ‘terrorist’ was removed from Mandela’s name. Many influential actors actively shielded South Africa’s brutal apartheid machinery from international action.
He shared his deep empathy and solidarity for the Palestinian people’s struggle for dignity but also took care to differentiate the actions of oppressors from a people and spoke about how civil society groups like Jews for Racial and Economic Justice have made conscious choices in their past and present to stand up for their values. The speech is worth a watch. Have a look here.
New CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist – Launching on 29 July
The next CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist will be released on 29 July. It will draw attention to a handful of countries where there has been a recent and rapid decline in civic freedoms, with a particular focus on concerning developments affecting the freedoms of association, peaceful assembly, and expression.
The Watchlist helps shine a spotlight on emerging civic space crises and supports advocacy efforts to promote accountability and protect fundamental rights. See which countries currently feature here.
We extend our gratitude to all who continue to work collaboratively with CIVICUS towards strengthening civil society. In these testing times, our shared commitment to courage, solidarity, and citizen action remains central to who we are and what we do.
In solidarity,
Mandeep S. Tiwana
Secretary General, CIVICUS
