From Closing Space to Contested Spaces

International civil society support is facing increasing restrictions in a growing
number of countries around the world. Jonas Wolff and Annika Elena Poppe
analyze the political controversy over this phenomenon of "closing space". In
looking at the global debate in the UN Human Rights Council and at four cases
(Ethiopia, India, Egypt, and Bolivia), they assess the normative claims brought
forward in order to either justify or reject restrictions on external civil society
support. The authors show that governments in the Global South have good
reasons to be concerned about the foreign funding of domestic civil society
groups and argue that a promising response to the spread of closing spaces
cannot but include a serious engagement with these concerns.
Dr Jonas Wolff is Head of PRIF's department "Governance and Societal Peace"
and member of the Executive Board. His research focuses on the transformation
of political orders, contentious politics, international democracy promotion,
and Latin American politics.
Dr Annika Elena Poppe is Project Director and Research Fellow at PRIF's
department "Governance and Societal Peace". In her research, she focuses on
international democracy promotion, normative and political change, US foreign
policy, and the US-Egyptian relationship.
The authors are members of the German Research Network "External Democracy
Promotion".