Tactics of Repression

Of all the civic space violations recorded on the CIVICUS Monitor, close to 44.8 per cent, over 1,350 civic space incidents, related to freedom of expression. Over 900 violations, 29 per cent of total violations, were recorded in the area of freedom of peaceful assembly, while violations of freedom of association constituted 26.6 per cent, with more than 800 incidents recorded.

The top global civic space violations are the detention of protesters, documented in at least 82 countries, followed by the detention of journalists, reported in at least 73, and the detention of human rights defenders (HRDs), documented in at least 71.

This year, civic space violations related to Israel and the Occupied Palestine Territories (see Middle East and North Africa (MENA) section) and the expression of solidarity with Palestinian people continued to be a concerning trend, with the latter particularly taking place in the global north.

Protest rights under attack

In 2025, people took to the streets in countries around the world to demand action and denounce government inaction on issues including the climate crisis, corruption, electoral fraud and irregularities, the high cost of living and poor basic services. And around the world, governments reacted by detaining protesters, a repressive tactic documented in over 200 protests in at least 82 countries. Other tactics included protest disruption, documented in at least 70 countries, and the use of excessive force against protesters, in at least 67.

Climate change protests and protests showing solidarity with Palestinian people continued to be targeted with repression, including detentions, prosecution, protest bans and the introduction of restrictive laws limiting peaceful assembly (see Restrictive Laws), particularly in Europe, North America and Australia.

The protest, organised by local farmers, community leaders and the Frente de Defensa Urbank de Tambogrande, a local organisation defending land and water, sought to defend agricultural livelihoods and water sources in a region dependent on fruit production and small-scale farming.

Authorities also detained people in response to election-related protests, including mobilisations against electoral fraud, the exclusion of political opposition and the lack of credible, transparent elections. Police arrested over 4,200 people in largely peaceful protests that erupted in the aftermath of October 2024 general elections in Mozambique that were marred by widespread irregularities. As violence flared, local civil society group Plataforma Decide reported hundreds of killings between 21 October 2024 and 16 January 2025.

In Côte d’Ivoire, ahead of the 25 October 2025 presidential election, police arrested around 700 people in protests against the Constitutional Council’s exclusion of leading opposition candidates. Dozens were sentenced to three years in prison for disturbance of public order, participation in a prohibited march and unlawful assembly. Meetings and gatherings of excluded opposition candidates were banned.

In Indonesia, police arrested at least 161 people in the student-led Indonesia Gelap – Dark Indonesia – protests that erupted in March 2025 after the adoption of revisions to the National Armed Forces (Tentara Nasional Indonesia) Act to expand the military’s role in civilian governance. In Iran and Saudi Arabia, authorities have systematically used the death penalty to target protesters, with at least two executed in Saudi Arabia, while women HRDs (WHRDs) in Iran face imminent execution after receiving the death penalty for protesting for women’s rights.

In 2025, authorities used a range of restrictive laws and provisions to detain journalists for their reporting, including cybersecurity laws, counterterrorism laws and false information laws, among other laws and restrictive provisions. On 17 March 2025, authorities in Mongolia detained eight journalists from Noorog Creative Studio for ‘undermining national unity’ under the Criminal Law Act, a charge that carries a prison sentence up to 12 years. The media outlet planned to release a documentary exploring Mongolia’s democratic processes from a citizen perspective. The eight were released after hours of interrogation and the confiscation of computers and hard drives.

In Benin, authorities regularly arrest and prosecute journalists for ‘harassment by electronic means’ under the 2018 Digital Code. On 15 July 2025, Cosme Hounsa, editor-in-chief of La Boussole newspaper, was arrested following a complaint by a government minister, Rachidi Gbadamassi, in relation to the outlet’s report on a legal dispute between Gbadamassi and another minister. Hounsa was released on summons pending further judicial proceedings.

In Turkey, authorities use counterterrorism laws to target activists and journalists. In January 2025, it was reported that three journalists, T24 editor-in-chief Doğan Akın, Gerçek Gündem editor-in-chief Seyhan Avşar and T24 managing editor Candan Yıldız, are facing eight years of prison on charges of ‘spreading misleading information’ and ‘making terrorist propaganda’ for their coverage of the killing of two Kurdish reporters in a suspected Turkish drone strike in Syria.

Defamation, insults and sedition remain criminal offences in many countries, enabling authorities to subject journalists to judicial harassment. On 23 November 2024 in Papua New Guinea, journalist and gender activist Hennah Joku was detained and charged under the Cybercrime Act, following defamation complaints by her former partner Robert Agen. Joku, a survivor of a 2018 assault by Agen, has documented her six-year journey through the country’s justice system, which resulted in Agen’s conviction. Joku was released after posting bail. On 1 July 2025, Faith Zaba, journalist and editor of the Zimbabwe Independent, was arrested and charged with ‘undermining the authorities or insulting the president’ after the publication of a satirical article that described the country as a ‘mafia state’ and mocked President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his leadership, particularly in his role as chair of the Southern African Development Community.

Investigative journalists, journalists working for independent media and journalists covering corruption are particularly vulnerable to arbitrary arrests. In Vietnam, where media are closely controlled by the communist one-party state, authorities frequently jail bloggers and independent journalists. On 7 October 2025, police arrested independent journalist Huynh Ngoc Tuan, who regularly posts commentary on human rights and politics on his Facebook page. He was charged with ‘propagandising against the state’ under the Penal Code, which carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years. On 8 April 2025, authorities in Caracas, Venezuela arbitrarily detained journalists Gianni González Nakary and Mena Ramos after a report on rising crime rates for the independent media outlet Impacto Venezuela. A few days later, a criminal court ordered the pretrial detention of both on charges of ‘hate crimes’ and ‘publishing false news’.

In Nigeria on 26 November 2024, soldiers detained Fisayo Soyombo, an investigative journalist and founder of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism, in Port Harcourt. The move was believed to be in connection with his investigative work uncovering corruption and smuggling activities facilitated by the Nigerian Customs Service. Soyombo was released after being held for three days. In Egypt, Zat Masr broadcaster and writer Ahmed Serag was detained in January 2025 on allegations of spreading false news and terrorism, in relation to an interview he conducted with Nada Mougheeth, wife of detained cartoonist Ashraf Omar. In February 2025, his detention was renewed for 15 days pending investigations.

In 2025, journalists were also frequently detained while covering protests. In Belgium, police detained freelance journalist Thomas Haulotte and held him overnight after he followed activists putting up posters with messages denouncing the far right. In September 2025, police in Nouakchott, Mauritania arrested two Al Akhbar.info journalists, Mohamed Abdallah Ould al-Moustapha and Aboubakar Ould Mohamed Vall, while they covered a sit-in outside gas company SOMAGAZ. They were released without charge after being held for three hours. In India, journalist Mujeeb Shaikh was detained on 6 March 2025 and held overnight while covering a peaceful women-led demonstration against war in Hyderabad. In May 2025 in Ottawa, Canada, Ramona Murphy, a North Star volunteer journalist, was detained along with 12 protesters while covering a protest at the Defence and Security Trade Show. The protest denounced the complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza of some companies at the event that allegedly sell equipment to the Israeli military.

Activism targeted

In February and March 2025, authorities in Mendoza, Argentina detained Mauricio Cornejo and Frederico Soria, charging them under the Criminal Code for their environmental activism, with prosecutors alleging they used their activism to ‘instil fear’ and obstruct the San Jorge Mining Project. Both are part of the Assembly of Self-Convened Neighbours of Uspallata, a group that has peacefully opposed the mining project. They were released in April 2025.

In Paraguay, police arbitrarily detained Vidal Brítez Alcaraz, president of the Association of Yerba Mate Growers of Paso Yobái, in March 2025, on unfounded charges of ‘grave coercion’. The charges relate to a January 2025 incident when a judicial order authorised trucks carrying mining waste to enter the property of a yerba mate producer. Police escorted the trucks, prompting a confrontation in which residents reportedly threw stones. Despite clear evidence confirming that Brítez was at home five kilometres away, prosecutors indicted him alongside five other environmental defenders.

In the Philippines, Asia’s deadliest country for environmental activists, authorities continue to smear activists as communists and detain them on baseless accusations under draconian laws, including the 2020 Anti-Terrorism Act and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act. In April 2025, six prominent Cagayan Valley activists, including environmental activist and journalist Deo Montesclaros, were charged in cases of financing terrorism.

Revoking citizenship as a threat or punishment for activism

According to Oman’s new citizenship law, citizenship shall be revoked for verbally or physically offending the Sultanate or the Sultan of Oman or for belonging to an organisation that embraces principles that harm the state’s interests. In Cambodia, the government now has the power to revoke the citizenship of anyone found guilty of conspiring with foreign countries to harm the national interest. In Hungary, dual citizens may now be stripped of their citizenship for up to 10 years if they are deemed to pose a threat to public order, safety or national security. In January 2025, Nicaragua’s National Assembly approved sweeping constitutional changes granting unlimited powers to President Daniel Ortega and Vice-President Rosario Murillo, including a revision to article 24 that enables the arbitrary removal of nationality. In May 2025, lawmakers adopted further amendments, imposing automatic loss of citizenship for Nicaraguans who acquire another nationality.

Lawyers, including human rights lawyers, have increasingly been targeted with arrests, often in response to their criticism of authorities or defence of activists and journalists. In Burkina Faso, in 31 August 2025, armed men claiming to be gendarmes arrested prominent lawyer Ini Benjamine Esther Doli on accusations of treason and insulting the head of state, over a Facebook post criticising the human rights record of the military junta under President Ibrahim Traoré. In Sudan, police arrested Abubakr Elmahi, lawyer for HRD Abubakr Mansour Abdela, on 1 October 2025, just days before Abdela was sentenced to death. Abdela was convicted for ‘offences against the state’ and ‘waging a war against the state’ under the Criminal Act, believed to be related to the humanitarian assistance he provided since the start of Sudan’s civil war by handing out medicines from his brother’s pharmaceutical company.

Among those detained are prominent musician Fei Xiaosheng, who has publicly supported the Hong Kong democracy movement, and Tibetan singer Tzukte, popularly known as Asang, for having sang a song eulogising Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. In Afghanistan, the Taliban arrested cultural activist and poet Sayed Alam Hashemi on 16 February 2025. While the official reasons for his arrest are unknown, sources believe it is in relation to his poetry. On 30 December 2024, police in Malaysia arrested artist and activist Fahmi Reza under the Sedition Act, used to criminalise expression and dissent, after he created a mural with a satirical graphic of Sabah Chief Musa Aman in the city of Kota Kinabalu. He was remanded in custody for a day before being released.

Others have been detained for expressing critical views on social media. In Yemen, Fawzi Ahmed Obaid, an online activist arrested in September 2015 by a Houthi-affiliated group for his Facebook posts, remains held incommunicado in an underground cell run by the Security and Intelligence Service in Sana’a. His family has never been allowed to visit him, and his case has never been presented before a court for trial. In Libya, activist Haitham Al-Werfali was arbitrarily detained in December 2024 after posting criticism of eastern Libyan authorities on Facebook. He was released four days later without legal process.

Authorities have also detained trade union leaders and members in retaliation for their advocacy for labour rights and for organising strikes. In Côte d’Ivoire, hooded men arrested Ghislain Duggary Assy, a teacher and communication secretary for the Movement of Teachers for the Dignity Dynamic Union, on 2 April 2025 in Abidjan, after a coalition of unions called for a teachers’ strike. A court sentenced him a few days later to two years in prison for obstructing the operation of the public service, a conviction an appeal court upheld in July 2025. In March 2025, plainclothes agents arrested Ali Mammeri, activist in the Hirak protest movement and president of the Syndicat national des fonctionnaires de la culture trade union in Oul El Bouaghi, Algeria. Mammeri had been targeted with reprisals and threats of legal action after organising a unionisation campaign in the cultural sector in 2024.

In Venezuela, in early August 2025, police detained lawyer and WHRD Martha Lía Grajales after she participated in a solidarity activity in front of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Office in Caracas.

Transnational repression, encompassing a range of tactics, including illegal abduction, intimidation and surveillance, used by governments to suppress dissent of their nationals and diaspora beyond their borders, has seen an escalation this year, with cases documented in several regions. The trend of transnational repression in Asia Pacific has continued in 2025, and the CIVICUS Monitor has documented cases of government cooperation to unlawfully arrest, illegally abduct, deport and in some case kill dissidents abroad in East and Horn of Africa, West Africa, MENA and Nicaragua and Venezuela (see regional chapters).

Restrictive legislation and regulation: a persistent and pervasive trend

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In 2025, the CIVICUS Monitor documented the adoption or proposal of restrictive laws and regulations affecting civic freedoms in at least 66 countries, making restrictive laws the ninth most prevalent global civic space violation.

The adoption and proposal of restrictive laws is an ongoing multi-year trend. The UN, regional human right bodies and numerous CSOs have urged states to halt the proliferation of laws that unduly restrict civic freedoms, calls that have largely gone unheeded. Governments continue to introduce new restrictive laws across all regions and across every category of civic space rating, undermining freedoms of association, expression and peaceful assembly. The CIVICUS Monitor tracks both adopted and proposed restrictive laws, as proposed laws can influence civic space and require significant civil society effort to oppose them.

This analysis covers measures adopted or introduced in 2025, although many restrictive laws passed in previous years remain in force and continue to shape civic space.

Disregard for civil society’s input when drafting and adopting legislation

The CIVICUS Monitor recorded multiple cases in which laws affecting civil society were drafted through processes that excluded CSOs or ignored their input. For instance, in 2025, Benin adopted a revision of its NGO law without inviting CSOs to review or comment on the draft. In Kyrgyzstan, although extensive consultations were held with media representatives regarding a new media law, the version ultimately adopted discarded key changes previously agreed on. Parliament passed the law hastily, combining second and third readings in a single day at the end of its session. In Canada, sweeping provincial and federal omnibus laws on infrastructure projects were adopted without the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous peoples who will be affected by these new measures and whose consultation is legally mandated.

LAWS RESTRICTING FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION

Many governments also adopted or proposed laws that increase compliance requirements and impose new restrictions on CSOs under the guise of improving transparency, adding barriers to the establishment, operation, funding and range of activities of CSOs. In 2025, this happened in Azerbaijan, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Nepal, the Netherlands, Thailand, Vietnam, Zambia and, through multiple bills, in Ecuador. These measures typically expand the supervisory powers of state authorities, including the ability to restrict their operations, as in Greece, limit their access to funding, as in Hungary, or to dissolve them, as in Venezuela.

Other governments amended existing laws with vague or overly broad provisions that can be used to target activists and organisations. Examples include revisions to counter-terrorism legislation in Belarus, Pakistan and Sierra Leone and to counter-extremism laws in Russia.

LAWS RESTRICTING FREEDOM OF PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY

In 2025, several countries adopted legislation that further restricts the right to peaceful assembly. Between January and April 2025, at least 41 US states introduced bills to impose new restrictions on protests. In Slovenia, draft Amendments to the Public Assemblies Law were introduced that would increase the personal data required from organisers and expand their administrative obligations. In Cyprus, demonstrations are now subject to a mandatory seven-day notification period and organisers are required to provide extensive information in advance.

Even more concerning are the new charges or harsher penalties proposed or added to legislation. Georgia and Italy passed sweeping legal packages that further restrict fundamental rights and freedoms, such as penalties for participating in unauthorised demonstrations. In Uzbekistan, organising and participating in ‘mass unrest’ was already criminalised, but the new version of the Uzbek Criminal Code adds penalties for organising training for mass protests. The UK criminalised the use of face coverings at specific protests and created additional offences in relation to protest.

LAWS RESTRICTING FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

The CIVICUS Monitor recorded several measures that undermine the independence of media outlets, broaden the basis for prosecuting journalists or work to prevent them doing their jobs in accordance with the rules of their profession. In Cyprus, a draft law could potentially result in lifting the right of journalists to protect their sources, or allow the search of journalists’ electronic devices, homes and offices. The Central African Republic reintroduced criminal penalties for professional misconduct, extending prosecution beyond content authors to editors-in-chief, managing editors and presenters.

Several governments introduced measures to weaken the independence of media outlets or media regulators, including in Ethiopia, where amendments mean the Media Authority no longer needs to include civil society representation and the prime minister rather than parliament appoints its director general. In Nicaragua, the removal of the constitutional ban on press censorship gave the government broader authority to restrict independent media. In other countries, authorities have sought greater control over media outlets by demanding detailed financial disclosures, as seen in Peru, and editorial programming information, as amendments proposed in Lebanon, or attempting to dictate content directly, as in Zimbabwe.

2025 saw the adoption or discussion of several cybersecurity bills and bills regulating social media. While these laws can pursue legitimate aims such as protecting critical infrastructure and personal data and deterring disinformation, several governments introduced bills or laws that give authorities excessive powers without adequate oversight. These laws contain vague definitions and provide a basis to delete public interest information or criminalise online speech and silence dissent, particularly as new laws have been introduced in countries with serious civic space restrictions. Some laws clearly seem to have draconian intentions, including in Zambia, where new cybersecurity laws retain vague definitions which could enable state agencies to undertake unchecked surveillance. In some cases, restrictive cybersecurity laws were amended to further control and criminalise online speech, such as in Pakistan, where amendments to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act were adopted in January 2025.

LAWS DIMINISHING PUBLIC SCRUTINY

While authorities assume increasingly broad powers based on vague concepts, the public’s rights to participate or access information are being reduced. This was observed in Malta, where, despite widespread mobilisation, the Criminal Code was modified to make it more difficult for citizens to request an investigation into potential corruption. In Vanuatu, the Right to Information Act was amended to restrict public access to decisions made by the Council of Ministers. In Kyrgyzstan, the independent body mandated to monitor detention facilities and prevent torture, which closely worked with civil society, was dissolved.

Digital repression

Internet restrictions

Governments continue to apply internet restrictions, particularly around elections and during protests, as a tactic to deter mobilisation and stifle dissent. Internet shutdowns, including complete blackouts and the selective blocking of mobile data and social media platforms, have become a powerful tool to disrupt the organisation of protests, limit the sharing of information and prevent the documentation of violations. In Cameroon, internet outages affecting several regions were reported from 22 October 2025, in a tense context where protests followed the undemocratic election that granted President Paul Biya an eighth term.

The media regulator claimed the temporary blanket social media ban aimed to curb the spread of videos showing alleged killings of South Sudanese nationals in Sudan, which sparked violent protests and retaliatory attacks on Sudanese nationals. In May 2025, Vietnam ordered telecommunication service providers to block the messaging app Telegram on accusations that Telegram did not cooperate in combating alleged crimes committed by its users.

In September 2025, the government of Nepal ordered the Nepal Telecommunications Authority to block 26 unregistered social media platforms, including Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and Instagram. The decision followed repeated deadlines under the 2023 Social Media Operation Directive, which requires platforms to register locally, appoint liaison officers, and designate grievance handlers. While TikTok and Viber complied, most global platforms refused, triggering the suspension order. This ban on social media led to the events starting on 8th September 2025, when mostly youth protestors took to the streets across Nepal - including Kathmandu, Pokhara, Butwal, and other major city centres - demanding an end to corruption and the lifting of the aforementioned ban.

Authorities are increasingly using bandwidth throttling, when internet providers intentionally slow down internet speed, and selective shutdowns, when internet restrictions are targeted at specific applications, functionalities or regions, to discourage protesters from mobilising or sharing information. In Turkey during the March 2025 mass protests, authorities imposed extensive bandwidth throttling across all major social media and messaging platforms. Services including Instagram, Signal, Telegram, TikTok, WhatsApp, X/Twitter and YouTube were slowed significantly, with some users reporting restrictions lasting up to 42 hours. In Sudan in July 2025, the Telecommunications and Post Regulatory Authority announced the blocking of WhatsApp’s voice and video call feature, citing security concerns and the need to protect the ‘higher interests of the state’.

Surveillance and spyware

Authorities have also used surveillance including spyware against HRDs, journalists and protesters. In February 2025, reports surfaced in Italy that investigative journalist Francesco Cancellato, who exposed pro-fascist elements in the youth wing of far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s party, and two refugee rights activists who have been vocal in denouncing Italy’s complicity in human rights violations in Libya, were targeted by Graphite, a military-grade spyware sold exclusively to governments. In Serbia in December 2024, investigations revealed that the Security and Intelligence Service had used spyware to monitor the phones of activists and journalists, including a student participant in sustained anti-government protests that began in November 2024.

Online censorship

As well as blocking and removing content, authorities have issued directions and notices to correct content. In Singapore, the government has widely used the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act to limit freedom of expression of journalists and media. For example, in December 2024, the government issued correction directions to Bloomberg and several local outlets after they reported on luxury property purchases involving trusts and opaque ownership structures. Authorities claimed the articles contained inaccuracies, obliging four outlets to display government-mandated correction notices and link to official clarifications.

Criminalisation of online speech

The CIVICUS Monitor has documented many cases of criminalisation of online speech, including criminal actions against people for online expression, typically using vague and broad legal provisions on disinformation and misinformation, false information and cybercrimes, among others. On 20 March 2025, Qatar’s Criminal Court sentenced internet activist Umm Nasser to three years in prison and a fine of 50,000 Qatari Riyals (approx. US$13,650) on charges of spreading false rumours, managing a social media account to spread such rumours and disrespecting the Qatari judiciary. In Nepal in August 2025, journalist Dil Bhusan Pathak was charged with publishing illegal material under the 2008 Electronic Transactions Act, which is regularly used to stifle online commentary and prosecute journalists. The charges followed an allegation on Pathak’s YouTube channel that Jaiveer Singh Deuba, the son of two powerful Nepalese politicians, was linked to questionable deals.

Online intimidation and threats against HRDs and journalists

Over 30 per cent of acts of intimidation and threats against journalists documented by the CIVICUS Monitor were made online. Online threats and violence are likely under-reported but have proliferated with the burgeoning of social media, and these have gendered dimensions with intimidation and threats specifically targeted against women. In January 2025, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawylor, reported having received news of an online smear campaign against Pakistani WHRD Professor Amar Sindhu, a member of a women activists’ group, poet and pioneer of a café, Khanabadosh, where activists and artists gather. Sidhu has been subjected to cyber-harassment and online intimidation. On 5 May 2025 in Ukraine, Vilne Radio journalist Yevhen Vakulenko reported receiving insulting and threatening Facebook messages from Kyiv city military administration spokesperson Yevhen Yevlev, who allegedly threatened to ‘break his face’ and called him an ‘enemy of the Ukrainian people’. The messages followed a Vilne Radio investigation alleging possible corruption involving Yevlev’s father. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) freelance journalist Daniel Michombero, who is based in Goma, received threatening replies in January 2025 after posting a photo of his family on X/Twitter, accusing him of spreading “fake news” and including suggestions that he should flee to Rwanda along with other refugees, or seek protection from the M23 insurgent forces to escape retribution.