Welcome to the new Civic Space Watch: From monitoring to action

The European Civic Forum (ECF) is excited to finally share the new Civic Space Watch website, which goes live today! The new, refreshed site includes several new features, including a hub for protection resources and an interactive map, and is designed to better reflect the evolution of our work.

We launched Civic Space Watch back in 2017 in response to the emerging trend of shrinking civic space and the need to promote greater awareness in Europe. At first, it was a relatively simple platform designed to pull together monitoring from different sources. Since then, it has grown into something much bigger. The data gathered here has become the foundation of our annual Civic Space Report — which is now a go-to resource for understanding the state of civic freedoms in Europe — and our policy, advocacy, and capacity building work.

As the pressure on civil society grows and with a proliferation of monitoring tools, we felt we needed a more proactive, action-oriented approach.

Moving from monitoring to action

The new platform reflects a wider evolution of our work. Developed through the MACS, Net4Defenders and PARATA projects, the site is now built to support a more active approach:

• Alerting institutions and the broader civil society:  As part of the MACS project, led by the European Center for Not-for-profit Law, we strengthened our civic space monitoring methodology and piloted an Early Warning and Alert System. The monitoring findings come from a network of reputable civil society partner — local civic organisations that monitor developments on the ground — and the platform acts as a centralised hub, alerting the EU, international organisations, civil society organisations (CSOs), donors, the media, and human rights institutions of emerging restrictions and patterns.
• Tracking EU-level developments: civic space increasingly has a European dimension with the actions of EU institutions impacting it. The new website reflects this by integrating a new focus on EU-level developments relevant for civic space.
• Action-oriented monitoring: With the EWAS, we can move closer to concrete responses and prevention of civic space deterioration. Increasingly, our alerts will be clearly linked to concrete action. The new Civic Space Watch is designed to properly track these actions, as well as any updates that might stem from them.
• Strengthening solidarity, reclaiming civic space: An important element of our civic space works has always been building solidarity among civil society across Europe, the rapid mobilisation of advocacy support, and sharing inspiring stories, victories, and positive examples. This work will now take an even more central role.

A new home for support: the Protection and Resource Hub

As part of our shift to a more action-oriented approach, we have also been looking at how to increase Human Rights Defenders’ and NGOs’ access to protection and support.

Thanks to inputs from the Net4Defenders and PARATA projects, we’ve developed a Protection and Resource Hub. This is a dedicated space on Civic Space Watch where individuals and organisations can search for existing initiatives, tools, or organisations offering protection when their space to operate is limited or under attack.

The Protection Database, launching with an initial limited set of resources, will be a living and constantly evolving feature, which we hope will become an invaluable tool for organisations and rights defenders in need of help.

We hope you enjoy the new site!