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

By Inés M. Pousadela, Head of Research and Analysis

The most interesting conversations I had at ISTR 2026 kept circling back to a single question: what can civil society do to resist democratic regression and anti-rights advances? Nobody around me needed convincing that civic space restrictions are increasing even in democracies, anti-gender forces are gaining ground, authoritarian playbooks are being copied across borders, and the collapse of international funding, coupled with intensifying vilification, is weakening civil society just when it is most needed. What was unusual was that, instead of merely lamenting all this, I was repeatedly drawn into conversations, both in the formal sessions and in the corridors between them, about what can be done to push back. 

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