All over the world, we are seeing systematic attacks on CSOs. Governments are placing legal restrictions on non-governmental organisations and erecting administrative barriers that make it more difficult for them to operate. Activists have been particularly impacted as their organisations are subject to increased surveillance, harassment or arrest, and their activities are being driven underground. The global business community has yet to fully grasp the implications of this global attack on civil society. The relationship between business and civil society was once characterised primarily by antagonism: NGOs attacked companies on environmental and social issues, and companies pulled the legal and political levers at their disposal to shut them down. That has changed: today business has a complex and multifaceted relationship to civil society. Read more here.
Source: CIVICUS / Virgin Foundation