Unwarranted official restrictions on CS

Al-Khatim Adlan Center for Enlightenment is a non-overnmental organization reigestered and working in Sudan. Today, December 31, 2012, security forces and officials from the regulatory body the Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) ordered the Centre to be closed down and have confiscated all the assets of the organization. This is the second NGO to be closed down in less than a month and a few others are also being threatened with closure. 

Al-Khatim Adlan Center for Enlightenment is a non-overnmental organization reigestered and working in Sudan. Today, December 31, 2012, security forces and officials from the regulatory body the Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) ordered the Centre to be closed down and have confiscated all the assets of the organization. This is the second NGO to be closed down in less than a month and a few others are also being threatened with closure. 

CIVICUS is deeply dismayed by the actions of the upper house of the Russian Parliment, the Federation Council, to pass a bill that stigmatises civil society groups which receive foreign funding.

The bill approved on 18 July obligates civil society advocacy groups which received foreign funding to register with the Justice Ministry as "foreign agents". The bill has received presidental approval.

CIVICUS believes that this regressive bill violates Russia's constituional and international law commitments to guarantee freedom of association.

Space for civil society shrinking in Uganda say national and global CSOs

Johannesburg, 25 June 2012. Civil society space in Uganda is rapidly shrinking, warn

global network CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation and Uganda-based

East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP). Independent civil

society organisations are being openly threatened and placed under excessive

scrutiny by senior government officials.

For example, on 18 June, a skills-building workshop for LGBTI human rights defenders

The United States has violated Egypt’s sovereignty by offering funding to Egyptian civil institutions, organizations and associations without properly consulting the government, said Egyptian Minister of Solidarity and Social Justice Gouda Abdel Khaliq on Wednesday.

In a press statement, Abdel Khaliq said that his ministry has managed to track the flow of US funds to Egyptian groups in violation of Egyptian law.

Information about Jasmine Revolution in China 中國茉莉革命訊息

The space for civil society to freely express, associate and assemble remains constrained in Swaziland.  Statements in the press on 19 October by Swazi Prime Minister Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini outlined his intentions to propose legislation to force columnists to request prior permission before publishing comments that criticise the government. The Prime Minister stated that columnists write pieces that are harmful to the image of the country and that they receive compensation from foreign sources with interests in Swaziland.

Sunni and Shia Muslims from Kazakhstan's ethnic minorities have told Forum 18 News Service of great difficulties they face from the state and the state-backed Muslim Board in opening mosques for people of the same minority ethnicity. When they have been able to register Islamic houses of prayer, they are subject to state or Muslim Board limitations on religious activity - such as being banned from conducting Friday prayers. Muslims are often extremely reluctant to discuss why ethnic minorities cannot conduct religious activity together, including hearing sermons in their own language.

Kazakhstan is pressuring independent Muslim communities to join the state-favoured Muslim Board. Asylkhan Nurmagambetov of the state Religious Affairs Committee stated that "mosques cannot be independent”. Just like any other religious organisation, because it belongs to a certain confession, it must be subordinated to a religious centre. Mosques also must do this". An official of the Muslim Board claimed that independent mosques "will breed terrorists". However officials were unable to explain what law demanded that mosques join the Board, or what proof there is for their assertions.

On June 20 Saida Kurbanova, head of Pakhtakor district branch (Djizakh region) of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, published a statement reporting about summons to the district police department. Kurbanova was summoned to Pakhtakor district police department on June 02. There she was informed that Nargiza Mirzakobulova, a resident of Djizakh city, has filed a complaint against her and another activist Ziyadulla Razzoqov of Djizakh regional department of the Committee for Protection of Person’s Rights.