The Civic Space Cohort of the Summit for Democracies, led by Norway, the Czech Republic and ICNL, which is a member of the Pillar, shared a series of calls to action which seek to promote and strengthen the work of civil society organizations such as activists and human rights defenders, emphasizing that their role is key to the consolidation of democracies. The main points and recommendations of the calls are:
- To stress the importance of finding and implementing innovative ways to enable and support nonviolent collective strategies that promote respect for human rights; and which have proven to have positive effects on democracies.
- To use the Anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders in order to strengthen support for and recognition of Human Rights Defenders and Civil Society in order to address issues such as the constant stigmatization of their work.
- To support civil society in exile by protecting them from threats imposed on them while in exile made by the government of the country of origin; also by supporting initiatives to provide legal, administrative and psychosocial help in order to enable CSOs and activists’ work.
- To promote and strengthen the work of civil society by striving for the protection of civil society actors who engage in UN processes and to monitor and report reprisals of individual cases.
- To share experiences resulting from the Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Assistance implementation.
- To promote and ensure the access to information and participation of civil society in policy and decision-making processes in order to create inclusive democracies and to contribute to the quality and effectiveness of laws and policies