By Nicolas Bouchet

Western NGOs promoting democracy feel the pressure as autocrats quake

After the end of the Cold War international non-governmental organisations, mostly funded by Western countries, fanned out across the globe to teach the ways of liberal democracy.

Not surprisingly, this prompted a reaction by authoritarian regimes, which has now turned into a global backlash.

The uncertain response from America and Europe to growing restrictions on democracy NGOs is encouraging governments to push even harder against what they see as a direct threat.

Today the spotlight is on Cairo, where 43 Egyptian and foreign NGO staff are on trial for operating unlicensed and with illegal foreign funding. If their trial, due to resume in June, leads to convictions and prison terms, the backlash will reach a high-water mark.

'Never before has a government attacked democracy programmes in such a pointed, harsh way,' said Thomas Carothers, an expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

In April, Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, raised the alarm about efforts to cut off international support for civil society. She highlighted Egypt, but listed developments in countries from Belarus and Cambodia to Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

The backlash against democracy assistance predates the Arab Spring. The effectiveness of internationally backed civil society was highlighted by Slobodan Milosevic's fall in Serbia in 2000. Rulers unsure of their popular support took note, and, to judge by the similarity of the laws they passed to restrict foreign NGOs, swapped notes aswell.

Russia, notably, has tightened restrictions on foreign organizations to preclude a 'colour revolution' such as Georgia's and Ukraine's, which the Kremlin saw as the result of Western plotting.

Egypt combines elements in a way that worries democracy organizations. It goes beyond the usual obstructions and pursues expulsions and criminal prosecutions. Locals and foreigners alike have been targeted. And, while such clashes have usually involved adversaries, this one involves two allies.

'That this comes from a government in the midst of an attempted transition to democracy and that enjoys a close relationship with the United States and other Western governments is especially surprising and dispiriting', said Carothers.

After Hosni Mubarak fell, Washington fast-tracked $65 million for democracy programmes in Egypt, where international NGOs had previously gained little access. The surge in activities by foreign groups antagonized Egypt's generals who accused them of political meddling.

The NGOs targeted include Freedom House, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute, high-profile organizations closely linked to America's political elite. By sending security forces to raid their offices last November and persisting with the prosecutions despite American pressure, the generals, no doubt smarting from Barack Obama's abandonment of Mubarak, have dared Washington to choose between its democracy rhetoric and its strategic interests in the region. The generals have not suffered any consequences.

Foreign NGO employees were allowed to leave Egypt in March after collectively posting bail of $5 million. Soon after, the Obama administration waived a legislative condition tying this year's $1.3 billion in military assistance to Egypt to the authorities' support for the transition to democracy. The matter could have ended there, but Egypt has since put the NGO staff on trial, asked Interpol to issue arrest warrants for the departed Americans and refused registration to other US-based groups.

Egypt's example appears to be encouraging similar acts of nose-thumbing at the West. Bahrain has increased visa restrictions for human rights groups. The United Arab Emirates has expelled NDI and the polling organization Gallup, and ordered Germany's Konrad Adenauer Foundation to shut its office. Foreign NDI employees were briefly detained and threatened with criminal charges.

In Russia Vladimir Putin has accused America of fomenting protests and financing the opposition during December's parliamentary elections. Moscow is considering a new law that would further restrict foreign financing of NGOs and has denounced an American plan for a $50 million fund to support Russian civil society.

'There are very real concerns with regards to the restricting of political space for civil society,' noted Pär Engström, a human-rights expert at University College, London. 'But at the same time, we should be aware of efforts by powerful states, and particularly the United States, to channel their preferences through non-state actors.'

Openings for international democracy NGOs are narrowing in many countries. They need to adapt to an increasingly chilly climate.

A central part of this must be more open discussion of how their actions are undeniably political, however much they strive for non-partisanship, and how their links to Western governments are perceived.

(Nicolas Bouchet is co-editor of US Presidents and Democracy Promotion (Routledge, forthcoming 2012).)

 

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