About 900 civil society leaders and activists from more than 109 countries were in Bogota to discuss active citizenry and how to overcome threats faced by civil society groups during the International Civil Society Week 2016 that started on April 25. This was the largest and most diverse gathering of its kind and the first one held in Latin America. The meeting was a space for leaders, activists, representatives of civil society organizations to join together and give their contribution to ensure the respect of rights of association, participation, expression and access to information, and to remind international actors of the role that civil society has as a political and social actor, as well as responsible actor in the development sector. Ali Zeddini, a prominent human rights activist of the Tunisian Human Rights League and 2015 winner of the Nobel peace prize, was among the speakers at the event. BCSDN representative Ilina Nesik took active participation throughout ICSW, more specifically in the two workshops organized by the Global Standard for CSO Accountability – an initiative that the network has recently joined, as well as at the presentation of the Civic Space Monitor were BCSDN is to become a regional node. More information is available here.
Source: BCSDN
