During the second half of the 20th century, the human rights movement in Latin America experienced a golden age after harsh decades of military dictatorships, purges and genocides. Due to the perseverance and strength of individuals and organizations, not only were international standards created against all types of violence and discrimination, but human rights violations decreased and monitoring institutions were created, with an emphasis on the protection of vulnerable populations.

Today we are facing the end of that golden age, as we are confronted with the retreat of human rights, the rise of authoritarian tendencies and the decline of democracies.  Various countries around the world are facing different forms of democratic decline. Some regimes have been imposed through illegitimate and non-transparent mechanisms and remain in power through a combination of populism and repression, as in Venezuela. In other cases, democratically legitimized governments have imposed regimes that limit and violate rights and roll back democratic values, as in Peru and El Salvador. Several countries, including the United States, are seeing an accelerated dismantling of institutional checks and balances and the rule of law.

One of the strategies of these regimes and governments to weaken the rule of law and democracies is to weaken and silence civil society. In some contexts, the tactics aimed at weakening civil society are presented under a veneer of legality. One of the most widespread is the passage of “anti-NGO” laws designed to restrict access to funding, limit freedom of association and expression, and impose bureaucratic hurdles and sanctions that ultimately seek to criminalize and outlaw the existence of such organizations.

Other measures are blatantly unconstitutional and illegal. The restriction of fundamental rights such as protest, freedom of movement and the right to life is also a measure widely used against civil society. A clear example is what happened last July 28, 2024 in the Venezuelan elections, when the Maduro regime unleashed a wave of repression against human rights organizations, protesters and the opposition.

Another recurrent tactic is defamation and discrediting. In Peru, several NGOs have been the target of intense harassment and stigmatization campaigns aimed at weakening their work and influence. These strategies, which exacerbate the climate of persecution and criminalization against civil society, range from the dissemination of disinformation through public media to accusations of receiving funding to carry out terrorist actions.

These types of measures, which aim to silence the voice of civil society, are also dealing a lethal blow to democracies. For a democracy to exist, it is not enough for there to be periodic elections and alternation in power. It is important, among other factors, that people can express themselves and participate. Therefore, citizens must be able to associate freely to debate and influence problems that affect them directly or indirectly. It is also essential that civil society, that is, citizens organized around community organizations, NGOs, religious organizations or the media, among others, have a safe space to express themselves, mobilize and participate in social struggles.

The participation of civil society in the political arena has a democratizing effect that enriches debates and strengthens the transparency of public processes. It also brings to the table local and global concerns that are not necessarily mediated by economic or political power interests, such as human or environmental rights.

In a context of democratic deterioration and siege to civil society, our invitation is to reflect and imagine new forms of mobilization and participation for and from civil society. In this Newsletter we want, on the one hand, to investigate the causes of this democratic crisis with an emphasis on Latin America and, on the other hand, to explore alternative responses as civil society. Rodrigo Uprimny analyzes the possible causes of the current democratic weakening in our region. Our colleague Diego Sardón delves into the Peruvian case and shows the importance of civil society organizations to rethink their strategies in order to become an important actor in the promotion of structural changes. Finally, Dejusticia presents our Enlaza Strengthening Program as a response to the challenges of this era, in which we are dedicated to developing and sharing capacities, fostering spaces of solidarity within the human rights movement and amplifying our collective voice.