Civil Society Space

A/HRC/RES/53/13View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2023.

What other versions does this mandate have?

4 versions · 2014–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/HRC/RES/59/10

2025A/HRC/RES/59/10Civil society spaceLatestCompare with previous version
2023A/HRC/RES/53/13Civil society spaceCompare with previous version
2016A/HRC/RES/32/31Civil society spaceCompare with previous version
2014A/HRC/RES/27/31Civil society space

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 topics

Civil Society Data Collection Human Rights Advancement Popular Participation Right to Security of Person

What does this mandate say?

17 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms that creating and maintaining a safe and enabling environment, both online and offline, in which civil society can operate free from hindrance and insecurity, assists States in fulfilling their existing international human rights obligations and commitments, without which equality, accountability and the rule of law are severely weakened, with implications at the national, regional and international levels;

Commends the work of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the special procedures of the Human Rights Council to promote and protect civil society space, both online and offline, including their work on widening the democratic space, and invites them to continue their efforts in this regard;

Takes note with appreciation of the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights entitled “Civil society space: COVID-19: the road to recovery and the essential role of civil society”;

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;

Emphasizes the essential contribution that civil society makes to regional and international organizations, including through advocacy and awareness-raising, participation in conferences, the sharing of expertise and knowledge, engagement in decision-making processes, and implementation, monitoring and evaluation processes, once again unequivocally reaffirms the right of everyone, individually and in association with others, to unhindered access to and communication with regional and international bodies, and their representatives and mechanisms, and urges States to refrain from practices that prevent or hinder such access and communication;

Recognizes the valuable contribution of national, regional and international human rights mechanisms and bodies, including the universal periodic review and the special procedures of the Human Rights Council, the human rights treaty bodies and national human rights institutions, to the promotion and protection of civil society space;

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;

Decides to remain seized of the matter.

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