Decline in democratic practice has taken many forms

Trends that have witnessed a decline in the observance of human rights and democratic practice have been the subject of concern among human rights and democracy activists. These trends are now referred to as the closing of civic space and are manifested by high levels of intolerance of dissent by regimes in power, which is evidenced by the enactment of restrictive laws to govern the operations of non-governmental organisations, often the vehicle through which activists organise.

The content of these restrictive laws may include a curb on foreign funding for NGOs or burdensome registration and reporting requirements. Governments have also resorted to the vilification and intimidation of NGOs or individuals that work in this sector, who are ridiculed as working against the national interest, as promoting religions other than those favoured by the mainstream, as supporters of terrorism. Individuals are often subjected to surveillance, which is often extended to close family members. In many countries the campaign of vilification has led to worse: the jailing or assassination of activists. Others have fled their countries for fear of being harmed by their own governments.

The decline in democratic practice has taken many forms including electoral contests whose results are predetermined in favour of incumbents, the rise of violence in electoral politics and, of course, the astonishing reversals in presidential term limits.

There are linkages between the threats that human rights activists face and the decline in democratic practices. Often these activists are the only ones prepared to speak against the slippages in democratic practice.

I was in Johannesburg last week for the 39th Congress of the International Federation of Human Rights Organisations (FIDH), where more than 400 global human rights activists, many of whom have had adverse personal experiences as a result of their human rights work, gathered to exchange experiences and to reflect on the future of their work. Based in Paris, France, the FIDH is the oldest global human rights movement which was founded in 1922 soon after the First World War, and has a membership across the world.

‘FIGHTING BACK’

The theme of the Congress, “Fighting Back”, reflects a growing feeling among human rights activists that they have had enough of being on the defensive and it is now time to fight back. Among the delegates were activists on the run from their countries to escape being jailed or killed. The delegates, who had been addressed by a number of South Africa’s freedom icons, including Rev Canon Mpho Tutu van Furth, on behalf of her father, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, held a symbolic march from South Africa’s historic Constitutional Court, as a sign that they are willing to stand up, to roll back the repression.

A special African session during the Congress reflected on the unique challenges that the continent in facing. A survey carried by the FIDH noted conditions of closing space have been exacerbated by governance crises in several of the countries, including the killing of more than 50,000 people in the unresolved conflict in South Sudan, the serious crisis in Burundi which the FIDH noted, is “increasingly ethnic and with genocidal dynamics.” The survey noted that crimes committed in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo echo a determination of the regime to hold onto power beyond the presidential term limit in December. Crimes in El Bashir’s Sudan have neither stopped nor been confined to the Darfur region but have affected the regions of Blue Nile and South Kordofan, and social movements and student protests in Khartoum are being suppressed. Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon are at the confluence of Boko Haram crimes which have left tens of thousands of victims, especially girls and children. In Central African Republic, the overthrow of President Bozize in 2013 triggered a crisis whose ramifications are still being felt around the country.

ARE POWERLESS

The details of these conflicts are serious crimes and, predictably, the victims of those crimes are the poorest members of society, who are powerless to do anything to escape the violence.

Kenya’s Maina Kiai, who as UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Association and Assembly, has earned massive global respect, presented a perspective on what has been driving the closing of civic space, in which he argued that globalisation has choked human rights and democratic practice. The competition for business opportunities is increasingly leading to global relationships that are free of value content and as long as governments can do business they are willing to look the other way when confronted with human rights abuses.

However, globalisation is a double-edged sword and, as Christopher Stone, President of the Open Society Foundations, argued during the Congress, “those attacking us are attacking in desperation.” In his view, while civil society is seen as a threat to those in power, the threat they face is actually much wider because “the injustice and inequality on which their power rests is more exposed than ever … Technology, mobility, literacy — all these in addition to civil society — have left those in power more exposed than ever.”

While globalisation has created a permissive world order, it also enables populations from around the world to remain connected and to learn from one another how to address common problems. As a result of technology, mobilisation is taking place on a tablet, rather than in the streets.

Because of these factors, the power that governments had on their citizens is corroding, and the closing of space is, in actual fact, a fightback by embattled regimes. However, citizens cannot consolidate their gains unless they recognise the reversed roles and take advantage of them.

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