ICNL works alongside local partners in 18 countries throughout Asia to foster an enabling legal environment for civil society, philanthropy, digital rights, and participation.
Our partners include local and regional actors, civic organizations, coalitions, and reformers in governments and parliaments. Together we monitor civic freedoms, advance reforms, and positively shape the legal environment for civil society.
Be sure to browse our Focus Areas, Key Resources, and Country Overviews.
ICNL worked with a coalition of local partners to successfully advocate for changes to a series of draft NGO laws in Thailand, which would have severely limited resources for non-profits.
ICNL’s work helped inform a recent Financial Action Task Force (FATF) report, which found that India’s non-profit regulations were implemented without adequate consultation. The report urged the government to adopt a more nuanced, risk-based approach going forward.
ICNL convened 46 civil society partners from 14 countries to examine the impact of shrinking international funding and share strategies for sustaining civic space. The consultation explored innovative financial and non-financial models, highlighted legal barriers to sustainability, and outlined urgent priorities for donors to support resilient, rights-based organizations in an increasingly authoritarian environment. Read the full summary
These two reports, published in January 2025, document the impact of civic space restrictions on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They highlight how regressive laws often lead to poor socioeconomic outcomes and, conversely, how a vibrant civil society helps achieve the SDGs. The research uses empirical and quantitative analysis as well as case studies from the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, and Pakistan.
In October 2024, Thailand’s Department of Provincial Administration under the Ministry of Interior proposed a new draft Act on Associations and Foundations. The draft Act evinces a controlling approach to the non-profit sector which threatens to violate numerous aspects of international law. This short piece highlights seven key concerns in the current draft.
On September 19, 2024, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental organization tasked with combating money laundering and terrorist financing worldwide, released its Mutual Evaluation Report on India. Although India achieved a high level of technical compliance overall, FATF noted that India needs to better comply with FATF Recommendation 8 on non-profit organizations. Read the full analysis here.
From 2020 to 2024, ICNL worked to empower civil society to address authoritarian measures enacted throughout the Indo-Pacific region in response to COVID-19. In partnership with FORUM-ASIA, Media Defence and over a dozen local civil society organizations, we focused on advocacy and data-driven research to show that collaborative, rights-respecting approaches produce better outcomes during times of emergency. This page hosts key work from this program.
ICNL works with civil society, policymakers, and others to protect and expand civic space across Asia. We help strengthen local actors’ efforts to advocate against restrictive measures and advance legal reform.
Recent contributions include working with local partners to address restrictive laws in Myanmar and Bangladesh and further expand civic space in Taiwan.
From increasing expertise on good practices to bolstering capacity to navigate complex legal environments, we collaborate with local stakeholders to defend and promote civic space.
Our recent work includes helping partners address the ongoing impacts of Thailand’s COVID-19 Emergency Decree, supporting Myanmar’s civil society in exile and partnering with organizations across Asia to navigate shrinking international funding and develop strategies to sustain civic space.
ICNL undertakes cutting-edge research on laws and trends shaping civic space throughout Asia, informing policy discussions and advocacy efforts.
We monitor developments through the Civic Freedom Monitor and the Council on Foundations Country Notes, among others. See the Key Resources section below for more.
The Myanmar military launched a crackdown on media freedom as part of its coup d’état in 2021, persecuting journalists and rolling back legal reforms. This page features data on detained journalists and analysis of their cases.
In recent years, India has enacted several measures constricting funding for domestic nonprofit organizations, including the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA). Our resource page provides analysis, information, and key resources on FCRA.
This study examines the extent and consequences of legal, regulatory and informal measures to restrict foreign funding of NGOs in nine countries in the Indo-Pacific region: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
This publication, updated in 2020, examines a broad array of regulatory trends shaping civil society in more than 40 countries of Asia.
Examine the various mechanisms for public participation in India, their barriers and limitations, and recommendations for broadening the space for public engagement.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, some governments in Asia established relief funds to address the pandemic. Some of these funds were criticized for lacking transparency and siphoning resources away from civil society. This paper explores government-run relief funds in six countries and examines how they impacted civil society.
Click below to see country-specific resources.
