About

About Us

The CIVICUS Monitor is a global research tool that tracks the state of civic space in every country. Created by civil society, it provides timely data and analysis on the freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression, while monitoring the actions and trends that shape these rights. Through an interactive world map and live updates from local partners, the Monitor helps people understand where civic freedoms are being protected, restricted or under threat.

About Civic Space Ratings Impact Methodology Contact

What is civic space?

Civic space is the bedrock of any open and democratic society. When civic space is open, citizens and civil society organisations are able to organise, participate and communicate without hindrance. In doing so, they are able to claim their rights and influence the political and social structures around them. This can only happen when a state holds by its duty to protect its citizens and respects and facilitates their fundamental rights to associate, assemble peacefully and freely express views and opinions. These are the three key rights that civil society depends upon. The CIVICUS Monitor analyses the extent to which the three civil society rights are being respected and upheld, and the degree to which states are protecting civil society.

The right to peaceful assembly is the right of citizens to gather publicly or privately to collectively express, promote, pursue and defend common interests — including peaceful assemblies, meetings, protests and demonstrations. States must protect and facilitate them.

The right to freedom of expression includes the right to access information, critically evaluate and speak out against policies and actions of state and non-state actors, without fear of retribution.

The right to freedom of association is the right of any citizen to join a formal or informal group to take collective action. Associations can include civil society organisations, clubs, cooperatives, NGOs, religious associations, political parties, trade unions, foundations and online associations.

The state must actively protect people who choose to associate, assemble and express themselves. When rights are violated, there should be thorough investigations. Without accountability, impunity for those who attack civil society prevails.

Ratings

Open

The state protects civic space and guarantees freedoms of association, assembly, and expression. Authorities are open to dialogue, police protect protesters, and the media operates without censorship.

Narrowed

Fundamental rights are generally respected, but occasional violations occur. Critics may face harassment or isolated arrests, and press freedom is often undermined by political pressure.

Obstructed

Civic space is limited by legal and practical constraints. Organizations face surveillance and harassment, protests are frequently suppressed, and journalists risk attacks or legal charges.

Repressed

Civic space is severely restricted. Criticizing power carries high risks of imprisonment or death. Protests face lethal force, independent media is targeted, and the internet is heavily monitored.

Closed

Total closure of civic space under fear and violence. The state suppresses fundamental rights with impunity. Media freedom is non-existent and any criticism faces severe penalties.

Impact Case Studies

Methodology

The CIVICUS Monitor combines data from a range of sources. Through a series of standard calculations and verification checks, we produce a guiding score for each country that we use to assign ratings on the state of civic space. Civic space is defined as the respect in law and practice for the freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression. Built into each of the three core freedoms is the understanding that a state has a duty to protect civil society, and must go beyond simply refraining from interfering in citizens' enjoyment of their rights.

Through a structured approach, we ensure that our treatment of data is transparent and that consistency is achieved in the analysis of different countries. Data generated by local civil society influences the ratings more strongly than data from other sources and this is reflected in the weight that we give to different data sets.

The cornerstone of the CIVICUS Monitor methodology is the combination of several independent sources of data on civic space. Because civic space is influenced by complex economic, social and political processes, the CIVICUS Monitor draws upon a number of quantitative and qualitative data for its analysis and ratings. The intention is to mitigate sampling errors and data bias and prevent over-reliance on any particular data set.

CIVICUS will always reflect on the data generated by the CIVICUS Monitor and ensure that its methodology includes the latest thinking and data sources on civic space. As part of the development process of the CIVICUS Monitor, we have updated the methodology twice since 2018. The CIVICUS Monitor methodology was designed to include a multiplicity of sources that are used to get to the final ratings. This was intentionally done to reduce over-reliance on any particular data source and to enhance the stability and sustainability of the CIVICUS Monitor ratings in the face of changes. Therefore, despite the methodological improvements, the rating information is still comparable over time and between countries.

Read our detailed methodology paper here.

In Numbers

198

Countries and territories rated

20+

Regional research partners

10

Years monitoring fundamental freedoms

50+

Tags and themes on civic space

90+

Country rating changes since monitoring began

72.9

Percent of world population lives in countries rated either 'Closed', 'Repressed or 'Obstructed'.

GUIDING
PRINCIPLES

The core mission of CIVICUS is to strengthen citizen action and civil society throughout the world. Consistent with this, the CIVICUS Monitor is built by civil society for civil society and is guided by four core principles:

Transparency

We publish our methodology and approach on this website, and demonstrate where we draw information from and how we arrive at our ratings. While information from activists working in very dangerous circumstances is protected, as a general rule we will ensure that as much data as possible is published in its original form. This reflects our longstanding commitment to promoting legitimacy, transparency and accountability within civil society.

Inclusivity

Perhaps the most important innovation of the CIVICUS Monitor is its attempt to incorporate directly the voices and views of local civil society organisations into an international measurement of civic space. We have developed multiple methods for prioritising the views of local groups in our analysis and ratings. We believe this will ensure a broad ownership which, as internet connectivity continues to increase, can be further enhanced over time. Further, we are making every effort possible to receive and analyse content in major world languages.

Flexibility

The CIVICUS Monitor is being developed through an intentionally iterative process of conversations with experts and civil society groups from all over the world. As its development and roll out continues, we will continue to seek feedback and shape our approach in line with comments and advice received from a growing cohort of users. While our primary focus is on generating an international dataset to monitor global trends, we also know we need to be flexible and ensure that the data is useful at the country level, where civil society groups may wish to use evidence from the CIVICUS Monitor to further their advocacy initiatives. In this, we will strive to remain flexible, listen to our membership and partners and strike a balance between the competing priorities of all users.

Activism

We want the data shared through the CIVICUS Monitor to be used to improve the quality and effectiveness of civic space and activism everywhere. We believe strongly that a robust measurement of civic space, truly owned by civil society, will be an invaluable new tool in the hands of activists across the globe. We will work hand in hand with our members to promote the growing ownership and use of this platform for campaigns, further research and monitoring of the performance of governments against their international commitments.

If you have ideas about how we can improve any aspect of the CIVICUS Monitor, we would love to hear from you. Feel free to use the form below to send us a message and we'll get back to you to start a conversation.