With the re-launch of it’s Monitor, CIVICUS has placed the United States on its Watch List, which draws attention to up to five countries where there is a serious and rapid decline in civic space. The other four countries on the list are Cameroon, Macedonia, Myanmar and Turkey.
Watch List countries have serious and ongoing abuses of the rights to freedom of association, peaceful assembly and expression. The list is aimed at influencing media, policy makers, officials in intergovernmental bodies and staff of other international civil society organizations. A decision to include the U.S. on this list was based on President Trump’s disregard for the media, as well as a number of bills currently proposed in state legislators that would seriously impact the right to protest.
The Monitor currently rates civic space in the US as narrowed. Civic space in the other four countries is either repressed (Cameroon, Myanmar, Turkey) or narrowed (Macedonia).