Civic space, democracy and human rights in 2024

This year was heralded as the year of elections, a global event for democracy with around 100 countries and 4 billion people taking part.

After years of democratic backsliding and increasing restrictions on civil society, human rights and the rule of law, it was also a test. So how did it go and what does it mean for democracy, human rights and civic space?

Global electoral trends

This year, incumbent governments fared poorly compared to opposition parties overall. New leaders were elected in Senegal, the USA and the UK, while ruling parties lost support in France, India, Japan and South Africa. Right wing parties did well in the EU and in the United States, but the left won in the UK and in many South and Central American countries. A clear trend was the advance of populist movements, which gained substantial ground in almost every region, tapping into voter concerns about economic inequality, immigration and national identity.

Voter suppression and restrictions on public debate occurred in many countries going to the polls. Access Now detected internet shutdowns in Comoros, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, India, Mauritania, Venezuela and Mozambique. Strict controls on media affected the polls in Turkey, Russia and Egypt. Disinformation was a significant issue in the United States, Indonesia and South Africa. The unchecked power of social media companies remains a problem, especially around elections. Many charities and progressive commentators have chosen to leave X following the US vote, in which its owner, Elon Musk, played a prominent role.

Political violence occurred in the run up to the elections in Mexico, where it’s estimated as many as 30 candidates were assassinated ahead of polling day, and in Bangladesh, which saw waves of violent demonstrations in the months before its election. There were two assassination attempts on Republican nominee Donald Trump in the US, and though they escaped the anticipated post-election disorder, in Mozambique, all protests were banned after several weeks of violence following their vote.

Many of these trends – populism, disinformation, political violence, and restrictions on free media and the internet – are incredibly harmful to civic space and human rights.

Civic space and democracy in the UK

Here in the UK, we began the year with the Court of Appeal granting the Attorney General permission to remove the ‘belief in consent’ defence for protesters who commit criminal damage. Shortly after, a new definition of extremism was published alongside a set of principles of engagement, giving the government permission to ban contact with groups that fall inside that definition, with no appeals process.

Then a snap election was called for July 2024 and the rules on non-party campaigning, more commonly known as the Lobbing Act rules, came into force. Campaigners once again were required to report their spending on certain activities to the Electoral Commission, but this time the threshold for reporting was much lower – just £10,000.

At the polls, Labour won an astonishing 411 seats, returning them to power after 14 years in opposition. The change of government presents an opportunity to reopen civic space following a decade of backsliding. Six months on, and while there has been a shift in tone, there has been limited improvement in policy so far.

On the positive side, the Rwanda Safety Act was quickly repealed and the new Culture Secretary promised to end the culture wars. The government has spoken about the value of civil society and recently launched a consultation on the Civil Society Covenant Framework, which outlines a new relationship with civil society.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is improving its guidelines for Human Rights Defenders, and it continues to support embassies to address civic space challenges. However, the long-promised strategy on civic space and open societies is still yet to materialise.

No action has been taken to restore protest rights. Climate protesters continue to face restrictions when stating their motivations in court and several environmental activists have received disproportionate jail terms. The government have decided to continue the appeal on whether the former Secretary of State was lawful in using secondary legislation to grant police power to shut down protests that cause ‘more than minor’ disruption – after the measures had already been rejected by parliament. This is alarming and suggests that this government is comfortable with the egregious measures put in place by the previous Conservative government.

Populism remains a significant force in the UK. The election saw the unprecedented advance of the Reform Party, whose populist, anti-immigration platform, led them to win 5 seats in the House of Commons and 14.3% of the national vote.

Rising far right violence is also causing concern and has serious implications for civic space in the UK. A few weeks after the polls, race riots erupted following the horrific murder of three young children. Disinformation about the killings prompted a wave of anti-immigrant, racist and Islamophobic violence.

Hotels housing asylum-seekers were targeted, as were Mosques and charities who work with refuges and migrants. Bond and many other charities publicly condemned the violence and stood in solidarity with those impacted. The threat persists – this autumn, several venues in the UK chose to cancel anti-racism events, including book signings and film screenings, out of fear of far-right violence.

The coming year

In January, Bond will publish practical advice for charities on acting in solidarity with communities and organisations facing violence and discrimination, which we have produced with lawyers from Bates Wells. Watch out for this year’s analysis of civic space trends due out in Spring, following the release of our first annual civic space review back in July.

With no UK general election scheduled until 2029, Bond will be pushing the government to bring forward policy, regulatory and legislative changes needed to improve civic space before the UK next goes to the polls. Actions Ministers can take now include:

Removing anti advocacy clauses from the grant standards
Dropping the appeal against Liberty and commit to reforming protest law
Developing a cross departmental engagement strategy

We will be concluding our Enabling Environment project, which is looking at more radical, systemic changes that are needed to open civic space. These will include fundamental reforms to the way we regulate charities, the rules governing campaigning at elections, and the relationship between government and civil society. Bond will also work with colleagues from across civil society to campaign for the repeal of anti-protest measures enacted by the previous government.

On the international side, we will be relaunching our Civic Space group, where we will convene Bond members to discuss the big civic space issues impacting their partners and programs overseas, and to undertake joint advocacy.

We will step up our advocacy towards the FCDO, working with our members to encourage the government to take a more strategic approach to civic space and protecting human rights defenders. Bond will also get behind calls for a new law that mandates UK companies to conduct human rights and environmental due diligence on their operations, investments and supply chains, which, it is hoped, will provide additional protections to human rights defenders at risk of harm.

To find out more about our civic space work please contact Rowan or Bibusa.