Reporting by ENNHRI members reveals an overall deterioration of the enabling environment for human rights defenders (HRDs) and civil society space more generally in several countries across the region.

HRDs and civil society organisations (CSOs) continue to be the target of attacks, smears, public criticism and threats in many European states. In some countries, NHRIs generally point to a less favourable environment for HRDs and CSOs defending human rights, as reflected in particular in reports on Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova and Montenegro. Challenges facing HRDs and CSOs continued to be exacerbated by the measures adopted to respond to the pandemic, as reported by ENNHRI member in Moldova, which raised concerns about the impact on HRDs of the exercise of strengthened government powers. Attacks reportedly target in particular HRDs and CSOs working on women and sexual and reproductive rights, LGBTI+ rights, rights of migrants and asylum seekers and environmental protection, as reported by ENNHRI members in France, Georgia, Greece, Northern Ireland, Poland and Slovakia. In Northern Ireland, ENNHRI member raised particular concern about attacks against minority women, which may be seen as a tool to diminish their public participation.

In Greece, the NHRI explains how such attacks occur in a broader, concerning context of racist violence. In Albania and Poland, ENNHRI’s members also alerts about activists being targeted by police during demonstrations, and retaliations against prosecutors opposing controversial judicial reforms. Cases of legal harassment, including Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), also seem to be on the rise, as reflected in reports on Armenia, Great Britain, Kosovo, Luxembourg and Slovenia. The ENNHRI member from Armenia alerts about ongoing attempts to terminate the operations of the Open Society Foundation in Armenia, through legal proceedings which the NHRI considers abusive litigation against public participation (SLAPP). ENNHRI member in Great Britain has noted that there have been reports of abusive court proceedings being filed before British courts even though cases bear little or no connection with the country.

Reports by ENNHRI members also expose how defenders are increasingly subject to hate speech, which the public authorities often fail to effectively address or even perpetrate themselves. This trend is particularly visible in Armenia, Georgia and Moldova. In Moldova, ENNHRI member raised specific concerns about harassment and intimidation of CSOs by politicians.

Against this background, some ENNHRI members regret the inadequacy of the legal framework for the protection of HRDs – with NHRIs in Georgia and Moldova, in particular, stressing how the concept of HRD is still not defined or protected by existing law. Elsewhere, too, such as in Albania and Croatia, ENNHRI members point to the failure to implement an overall framework for the development of a healthy civic space.

Many ENNHRI members further pointed to laws unduly restricting HRDs’ and CSOs’ activities.

In this respect, a new emerging trend, in particular in EU countries, concerns provisions providing for the dissolution of associations which undermine basic values and principles. While requiring associations to align their objectives and activities with human rights standards and democratic principles is indeed a legitimate aim, legal provisions foreseeing the dissolution of associations based on vague formulations risk leading to disproportionate and arbitrary interferences with the right to freedom of association – as mentioned by ENNHRI members in Belgium as regards the bill on associations inciting hatred and discrimination and by ENNHRI’s member in France as regards the law on the respect of republican values. Such objective can, by contrast, be supported through positive measures, as reflected in a bill under discussion in Germany aimed at fostering and strengthening the democratic engagement of civil society organisations.

Restrictive laws governing the establishment and operations of CSOs are reported in a number of countries, in particular outside the EU. The report on Albania alerts about a new law introducing disproportionate obligatory registration requirements for all CSOs, deemed contrary to international standards on freedom of association. In the Transnistrian region of Moldova, ENNHRI member reports that the rights and activities of HRDs were the object of severe restrictions by law.

At the same time, in particular in the EU, problems persist with laws criminalising HRDs’ activities, especially in the area of migration. In Hungary, the CJEU recently intervened to declare Hungarian provisions criminalising and obstructing the provision of assistance to asylum seekers as incompatible with EU law. ENNHRI members from Croatia and Lithuania reported concerns as regards the application of laws criminalising HRD’s activities in this area. Elsewhere, ENNHRI members report how HRDs and CSOs active on the protection and promotion of the rights of migrants and asylum seekers are also increasingly the object of restrictive measures and practices, as reflected in the burdensome registration requirements introduced in Greece, where the NHRI also raises concern on the lack of transparency and consistency as regards their application; in Croatia and France, where authorities continue to limit access to information and physical access to migrants settlements; and in Poland, where the emergency regime and related rules applicable to the Belarus border zone have obstructed monitoring and humanitarian assistance by HRDs and civil society.

Similarly, ENNHRI members in particular within the EU continue to point to the impact of existing laws on the advocacy and campaigning work of associations, such as laws on citizens’ security (in Spain), counterterrorism (in Belgium and France) and political advertising (in Ireland).

Limitations on access to funding and donations and an unfavourable financing framework for civil society organisations also remain an issue ENNHRI members across the region continue to point to, for example in Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, North Macedonia, Portugal, and Slovakia. This has an impact also on access to EU funding, as reported in particular by ENNHRI member in Croatia, while public financing remains inaccessible to organisations working on LGBTI+ and women rights in Slovakia. In Denmark, ENNHRI member reiterates its concerns over the introduction in 2021 of rules banning donations from persons or organisations attempting to undermine democracy and human rights, which in the Institution’s view pose a risk of arbitrariness and legal uncertainty.

ENNHRI members across the region have also continued to raise concerns on laws restricting civic space and the exercise of civic freedoms. ENNHRI members in Albania, Finland, Moldova and Portugal made general reference to the impact on civic space of measures adopted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, while in a number of countries including Albania, Armenia, Georgia, Great Britain, Hungary, Lithuania, Moldova, Slovenia and the Russian Federation (as well as Poland, but in connection to the emergency regime declared in response to developments at the Belarus border), ENNHRI members reported about persisting interferences with the exercise of the freedom of peaceful assembly. This prompted interventions by constitutional courts: for example, in Hungary, the Constitutional Court recently recommended to the government to ensure a regular review of restrictions; in Slovenia, the Court declared restrictions disproportionate.

By contrast, measures were considered balanced by ENNHRI’s member in Estonia, allowing protests to take place peacefully. In Denmark, ENNHRI’s member reported that the security bill aimed to restrict gatherings and activities in the public space was eventually rejected by the parliament. NHRIs in some countries, and namely Armenia and Georgia, particularly reported the disproportionate use of police powers towards peaceful protesters and the inadequate protection measures taken by law enforcement to prevent and address violence during protests.