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Assert Civic Spaces.
Assert People's Right to Development

We are Defend NGOs Alliance. 

Defend NGOs is an alliance of civil society organizations asserting civic spaces and people's right to development. The alliance was born in 2024 in response to increasing judicial attacks on development and humanitarian non-government organizations (NGOs).

 

Since 2019, scores of development workers from dozens of NGOs in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao have been harassed with baseless charges related to terrorism. Organizational and even personal bank accounts have been frozen. Many other NGOs are surveilled or harassed while providing services to their constituents.

 

These attacks hinder NGO work and prevent the delivery of vital projects to tens of thousands of beneficiaries in underserved communities. They also create tension, insecurity and fear.

 

This is unfortunately part of a broader global trend, including in the Asia Pacific, of state-driven efforts to delegitimize civil society, criminalize dissent, and undermine citizen political engagement. International NGOs like Civicus, Amnesty International and Oxfam have already pointed out how these growing attacks on the right to freedom of association and expression shrink civic spaces and diminish the future of democratic societies.

 

The Philippines is hailed as having among the most diverse and vibrant civil society sectors in the world. Defend NGOs commits to hold the line to uphold civic space against those who are out to shrink this and restrict our freedoms.

Campaign
objectives

1. Stop attacks on NGOs and development workers – ranging from red-tagging and vilification, to obstruction and harassment, including spurious legal charges and regulatory interference, up to and including outright violent attacks.

2. Dismantle repressive legal mechanisms used against NGOs and development workers – including abolition of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and amendment or repeal of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), as recommended by United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteurs, but also other terrorism-related laws and issuances prone to abuse and misuse

Our Strategies

  • Expand our alliance and strengthen cooperation among civil society groups, advocates and human rights defenders

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  • Increase public awareness, sympathy and support for development and humanitarian NGOs that are under attack for their service to communities and advocacies – through mass media and social media, but also organizing activities to reach out and interact with people directly

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  • Lobby for policy reforms both domestically and internationally we can get support for improved laws and regulations from lawmakers, human rights institutions, the UN system and even diplomatic missions

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How we can work together

Join the alliance. All it takes is to believe in the importance of standing up against those who oppose our efforts to demand accountability and fight corruption, provide services to those in need, and support communities and their struggle for democratic reforms.

 

Please just give us your organization (or name if joining as an individual) and contact details. We’ll keep in touch to update you on developments and our activities.

 

Be a Convenor. We will be so much stronger and our achievements so much greater if we actively work together! Our campaign will make great leaps forward the more energy and creativity we bring to bear on protecting civic spaces.

 

Give us your organization (or name) and contact details. We’ll get in touch right away to introduce you to the other Convenors, get your inputs and suggestions, and discuss and develop our plans. You can give as much as you’re comfortable with when you’re able to.

What we've done so far

  • Build our database and case profiles of development and humanitarian NGOs under attack

  • Submission of reports to UN Special Rapporteurs, lobbying during UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions, dialogues with diplomatic missions

  • Supporting NGOs with baseless terrorism-related cases filed against them

  • May 21-23, 2024 – PAG-ALABIN: People-led, People-centered Development forum on civil society good practices

  • July 2, 2024 – Media forum on the anniversary of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA); July 3, 2024 – Civil society mobilization against ATA

  • August 19, 2024 – Roundtable discussion on shrinking civic spaces for World Humanitarian Day

  • August 29, 2024 – Filed House Resolution 1985 Urging the Committee on Human Rights to Immediately Conduct an Investigation, in Aid of Legislation, on the Escalating Judicial Attacks on Humanitarian and Development Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) and Other Human Rights Defenders which Restrict Civic Spaces and Erode Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the Communities They Serve

  • Lobbying for the Human Rights Defenders Protection Bill (HRDB) and Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Act (CADB)

  • Organizing membership and campaign centers for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao

Featured Stories

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