ICNL’s Global Program seeks to protect and expand civic freedoms by advancing global and regional norms that can be used to defend civic space at the national level.
With our partners, we seek to bolster protective norms across a variety of international bodies, including the United Nations, the Financial Action Task Force, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Open Government Partnership.
ICNL works with UN member states to enhance international norms protecting civic freedoms and collaborates with UN bodies to advance civil society’s access to multilateral fora
In 2020, we played a key role in facilitating civil society input for General Comment No. 37 – the Human Rights Committee’s landmark guidance on the right to peaceful assembly.
ICNL works with a range of United Nations special rapporteurs with mandates relevant to civic freedoms.
To strengthen their mandates, ICNL supports research, provides expert submissions, convenes consultations with civil society, and hosts events to publicize special rapporteurs’ reports.
ICNL and ECNL work with national partners to respond to restrictions on civil society arising from processes associated with the Financial Action Task Force.
We also engage with the Task Force through our membership in the FATF Private Sector Consultative Forum, a policy-implementation advisory body.
ICNL works with the Open Government Partnership to promote action by its member states to expand civic space and address constraints on civil society.
Our contributions have included providing technical assistance to OGP governments, advising civil society partners advocating for civic space commitments in OGP action plans, and more.
Civil society organizations have a key role to play in delivering sustainable development. ICNL works to promote and protect this role.
Our work has helped elevate civil society’s involvement in the annual High-Level Political Forum for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee, and more.
ICNL works with civil society partners and initiatives such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) to ensure respect for civil society participation in natural resource governance issues.
In 2021, ICNL and our partner Publish What You Pay published guidance for civil society on using EITI processes to flag concerns about civic space in EITI implementing countries.
This guide offers a checklist of principles to consult before embarking on digital policy initiatives, recommendations for OGP commitments, and examples of positive practices and policies that OGP members are already undertaking. Government representatives and civil society actors alike can draw on this resource to co-create enabling digital reforms.
In 2022, ICNL and its partners convened a diverse group of stakeholders to explore strategies for promoting better natural resource governance and expanding civic space in environments that are hostile to extractives activism. This document summarizes the discussions and highlights ways forward.
Since 2023, ICNL and ECNL have been advocating for the UN Human Rights Committee to develop a General Comment on the right to freedom of association – the only core civic freedom for which they have not provided authoritative guidance. As part of these efforts, ICNL and ECNL developed this report summarizing UN sources of law on association rights.
This OECD document – known as the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Assistance – is the first international standard focused on enhancing collaboration with civil society actors as contributors to the 2030 Agenda. It provides a framework to help development providers advance policies and practices that reinforce civic space.
This 2020 report presents the first cross-regional survey of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) in the Global South, and the first rigorous comparative analysis of anti-SLAPP policy responses undertaken in the North and the South. It analyzes over 80 reported SLAPPs in Southern jurisdictions.