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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/09/watchlist-decline-civic-freedoms-civicus>
"The United States has been added to the Civicus Monitor Watchlist, which
identifies countries that the global civil rights watchdog believes are
currently experiencing a rapid decline in civic freedoms.
Civicus, an international non-profit organization dedicated to “strengthening
citizen action and civil society around the world”, announced the inclusion of
the US on the non-profit’s first watchlist of 2025 on Monday, alongside the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Italy, Pakistan and Serbia.
The watchlist is part of the Civicus Monitor, which tracks developments in
civic freedoms across 198 countries. Other countries that have previously been
featured on the watchlist in recent years include Zimbabwe, Argentina, El
Salvador and the United Arab Emirates.
Mandeep Tiwana, co-secretary general of Civicus, said that the watchlist “looks
at countries where we remain concerned about deteriorating civic space
conditions, in relation to freedoms of peaceful assembly, association and
expression”.
The selection process, the website states, incorporates insights and data from
Civicus’s global network of research partners and data.
The decision to add the US to the first 2025 watchlist was made in response to
what the group described as the “Trump administration’s assault on democratic
norms and global cooperation”.
In the news release announcing the US’s addition, the organization cited recent
actions taken by the Trump administration that they argue will likely “severely
impact constitutional freedoms of peaceful assembly, expression, and
association”.
The group cited several of the administration’s actions such as the mass
termination of federal employees, the appointment of Trump loyalists in key
government positions, the withdrawal from international efforts such as the
World Health Organization and the UN Human Rights Council, the freezing of
federal and foreign aid and the attempted dismantling of USAid.
The organization warned that these decisions “will likely impact civic freedoms
and reverse hard-won human rights gains around the world”.
The group also pointed to the administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian
protesters, and the Trump administration’s unprecedented decision to control
media access to presidential briefings, among others.
Civicus described Trump’s actions since taking office as an “unparalleled
attack on the rule of law” not seen “since the days of McCarthyism in the
twentieth century”, stating that these moves erode the checks and balances
essential to democracy."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
