Civil Society Space

Urges States to recognize and promote the important role of a diverse and pluralistic civil society and to acknowledge the important contribution of civil society, including grass-roots organizations, human rights defenders, journalists and media workers, to the promotion of human rights, including the principle of non-discrimination, and to ensure a safe and enabling environment for their work, both online and offline;

Also urges States to ensure that legislation, policies and practices do not undermine the capacity of civil society to operate free from hindrance and insecurity;

Encourages States to take every opportunity to support diversity of civil society participation, with particular emphasis on underrepresented parts of civil society, including women, children, youth, older persons, persons with disabilities, persons belonging to ethnic, religious, national, linguistic and racial minorities, migrants, refugees, and others, and also including Indigenous Peoples and others not associated with or organized in non-governmental organizations;

Urges States to ensure that the issue of the creation and maintenance of a safe and enabling environment for civil society is addressed in the context of the universal periodic review, and encourages States in that regard to consult civil society in the preparation of their national reports, to consider including in their national reports information on relevant domestic provisions and steps, to consider making relevant recommendations to States under review and to assist States in the implementation of relevant recommendations through, inter alia, the sharing of experiences, good practices and expertise and offering technical assistance on the basis of requests and with the consent of the States concerned, and conducting broad consultations with civil society in the follow-up to their review, in compliance with Human Rights Council resolutions 5/1 of 18 June 2007 and 16/21 of 25 March 2011;

Encourages States and regional and international organizations to put in place transparent, fair and gender-responsive accreditation processes that deliver prompt decisions and respect human rights, including by establishing grievance mechanisms for redress, and to address any erroneous accreditation decisions;

Calls upon States and encourages international and regional organizations to review, and update as appropriate, their frameworks for engagement with civil society and ensure that those frameworks reflect and respond to the challenges faced, including by taking measures to tackle barriers to participation by underrepresented parts of civil society, and also calls upon States to enable and institutionalize meaningful online participation in hybrid meetings;

Also calls upon States to ensure that provisions on funding to civil society actors are in compliance with their international human rights obligations and commitments and are not misused to hinder the work or endanger the safety of civil society actors, and underlines the importance of the ability to solicit, receive and utilize resources for their work;

Urges States to create and maintain a safe and enabling environment, online and offline, in which civil society can operate free from hindrance, insecurity and reprisals, including by putting in place and, where necessary, reviewing and amending relevant laws, policies, institutions and mechanisms, and also urges States to ensure that such measures are gender-, disability- and age-responsive, address racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and take into account the needs of different groups and the online dimension of threats and attacks;

Also urges States to take all steps necessary to prevent threats, attacks, discrimination, arbitrary arrests and detention or other forms of harassment, reprisals and acts of intimidation against civil society actors, including human rights defenders, to investigate any such alleged acts, to ensure access to justice and accountability and to end impunity where such violations and abuses have occurred;

Calls upon States to establish or enhance information-gathering and monitoring mechanisms, such as databases, including by benefiting from data collected by civil society and the media, to permit the collection, analysis and reporting of concrete quantitative and qualitative disaggregated data on threats, attacks or violence against civil society, including human rights defenders, journalists and media workers, and to do their utmost to make data available to relevant entities, in particular the Office of the High Commissioner;

Requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a thematic report that identifies challenges and best practices in regularly assessing civic space trends and contains recommendations with a view to enhancing information-gathering on civic space, and also requests the High Commissioner, in the preparation of the report, to draw on the views of States, civil society non-governmental organizations, national human rights institutions and other relevant stakeholders, including special procedure mandate holders, and to present the report to the Human Rights Council at its fifty-sixth session;