2016 HRC Resolution on civil society space

32nd ses­sion
20 July 2016

Res­o­lu­tion A/HRC/RES/32/31

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Analysis of precedential value

This UN Human Rights Coun­cil (HRC) res­o­lu­tion was adopted by a recorded vote of 31 to 7, with 9 absten­tions, in July 2016. It was co-drafted by rep­re­sen­ta­tives of 54 Mem­ber States, 38 of which were not mem­bers of the sit­ting Human Rights Coun­cil.

The HRC is com­posed of elected rep­re­sen­ta­tives from 47 Mem­ber States; together, they are respon­si­ble for coor­di­nat­ing inves­ti­ga­tions of and responses to human rights vio­la­tions.

Used as precedent

human rights

• “Urges States to ensure access to jus­tice, and account­abil­ity, and to end impunity for human rights vio­la­tions and abuses against civil soci­ety actors, includ­ing by putting in place, and where nec­es­sary review­ing and amend­ing, rel­e­vant laws, poli­cies, insti­tu­tions and mech­a­nisms to cre­ate and main­tain a safe and enabling envi­ron­ment in which civil soci­ety can oper­ate free from hin­drance, inse­cu­rity and reprisals.” (para­graph 7)

• “Urges all non-State actors to respect all human rights and not to under­mine the capac­ity of civil soci­ety to oper­ate free from hin­drance and inse­cu­rity.” (para­graph 9)

• “Reminds States of their oblig­a­tion to respect and fully pro­tect the civil, polit­i­cal, eco­nomic, social and cul­tural rights of all indi­vid­u­als, inter alia, the rights to free­dom of expres­sion and opin­ion and to assem­ble peace­fully and asso­ciate freely, online as well as offline, includ­ing for per­sons espous­ing minor­ity or dis­sent­ing views or beliefs, and that respect for all such rights, in rela­tion to civil soci­ety, con­trib­utes to address­ing and resolv­ing chal­lenges and issues that are impor­tant to soci­ety, such as address­ing finan­cial and eco­nomic crises, respond­ing to pub­lic health crises, respond­ing to human­i­tar­ian crises, includ­ing in the con­text of armed con­flict, pro­mot­ing the rule of law and account­abil­ity, achiev­ing tran­si­tional jus­tice goals, pro­tect­ing the envi­ron­ment, real­iz­ing the right to devel­op­ment, empow­er­ing per­sons belong­ing to minori­ties and vul­ner­a­ble groups, com­bat­ing racism and racial dis­crim­i­na­tion, sup­port­ing crime pre­ven­tion, coun­ter­ing cor­rup­tion, pro­mot­ing cor­po­rate social respon­si­bil­ity and account­abil­ity, com­bat­ing human traf­fick­ing, empow­er­ing women and youth, pro­mot­ing the rights of the child, advanc­ing social jus­tice and con­sumer pro­tec­tion, the real­iza­tion of all human rights and the imple­men­ta­tion of the 2030 Agenda for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment.” (para­graph 3)

key population and community leadership

• “Empha­sizes that cre­at­ing and main­tain­ing a safe and enabling envi­ron­ment in which civil soci­ety can oper­ate free from hin­drance and inse­cu­rity assists States in ful­fill­ing their exist­ing inter­na­tional human rights oblig­a­tions and com­mit­ments, with­out which equal­ity, account­abil­ity and the rule of law are severely weak­ened, with impli­ca­tions at the national, regional and inter­na­tional lev­els.” (para­graph 1)

• “Empha­sizes the impor­tance of civil soci­ety space for empow­er­ing per­sons belong­ing to minori­ties and vul­ner­a­ble groups, as well as per­sons espous­ing minor­ity or dis­sent­ing views or beliefs, and in that regard calls upon States to ensure that leg­is­la­tion, poli­cies and prac­tices do not under­mine the enjoy­ment by such per­sons of their human rights or the activ­i­ties of civil soci­ety in defend­ing their rights.” (para­graph 5)

positive legal determinants

• “Empha­sizes the essen­tial role of civil soci­ety in sub­re­gional, regional and inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing in sup­port of the orga­ni­za­tions’ work, and in shar­ing expe­ri­ence and exper­tise through effec­tive par­tic­i­pa­tion in meet­ings in accor­dance with rel­e­vant rules and modal­i­ties, and in this regard reaf­firms the right of every­one, indi­vid­u­ally and in asso­ci­a­tion with oth­ers, to unhin­dered access to and com­mu­ni­ca­tion with sub­re­gional, regional and inter­na­tional bod­ies, and their rep­re­sen­ta­tives and mech­a­nisms.” (para­graph 10)

human rights, positive legal determinants

• “Also urges States to cre­ate and main­tain, in law and in prac­tice, a safe and enabling envi­ron­ment for civil soci­ety, and in this regard encour­ages States to use good prac­tices such as, inter alia, those com­piled in the report of the High Com­mis­sioner on prac­ti­cal rec­om­men­da­tions for the cre­ation and main­te­nance of a safe and enabling envi­ron­ment for civil soci­ety, based on good prac­tices and lessons learned by, inter alia:
  (a) Tak­ing steps to ensure a sup­port­ive legal frame­work and access to jus­tice, includ­ing by acknowl­edg­ing pub­licly the impor­tant and legit­i­mate role of civil soci­ety in the pro­mo­tion of human rights, democ­racy and the rule of law, includ­ing through pub­lic state­ments and pub­lic infor­ma­tion cam­paigns, and bet­ter address­ing busi­ness-related human rights abuses through the effec­tive imple­men­ta­tion of the Guid­ing Prin­ci­ples on Busi­ness and Human Rights;
  (b) Con­tribut­ing to a pub­lic and polit­i­cal envi­ron­ment con­ducive to civil soci­ety work, includ­ing by strength­en­ing the rule of law, the admin­is­tra­tion of jus­tice, social and eco­nomic devel­op­ment, access to infor­ma­tion, the pro­mo­tion of the rights to free­dom of opin­ion and expres­sion online and offline, and of peace­ful assem­bly and asso­ci­a­tion, and by par­tic­i­pat­ing in pub­lic affairs and pro­mot­ing the real and effec­tive par­tic­i­pa­tion of the peo­ple in deci­sion-mak­ing processes, and tak­ing steps to ensure that all domes­tic legal pro­vi­sions with an impact on civil soci­ety actors, includ­ing counter-ter­ror­ism mea­sures, com­ply with rel­e­vant inter­na­tional human rights oblig­a­tions and com­mit­ments, includ­ing the Dec­la­ra­tion on the Right and Respon­si­bil­ity of Indi­vid­u­als, Groups and Organs of Soci­ety to Pro­mote and Pro­tect Uni­ver­sally Rec­og­nized Human Rights and Fun­da­men­tal Free­doms, main­tain­ing acces­si­ble domes­tic pro­ce­dures for the estab­lish­ment or reg­is­tra­tion of orga­ni­za­tions and asso­ci­a­tions, and access to national, regional and inter­na­tional human rights mech­a­nisms;
  (c) Pro­vid­ing for access to infor­ma­tion, includ­ing by adopt­ing clear laws and poli­cies pro­vid­ing for effec­tive dis­clo­sure of infor­ma­tion held by pub­lic author­i­ties and a gen­eral right to request and receive infor­ma­tion sub­ject to clearly and strictly defined excep­tions in accor­dance with inter­na­tional human rights law;
  (d) Pro­vid­ing for the par­tic­i­pa­tion of civil soci­ety actors, includ­ing by enabling them to par­tic­i­pate in pub­lic debate on deci­sions that would con­trib­ute to the pro­mo­tion and pro­tec­tion of human rights and the rule of law and on any other rel­e­vant deci­sions, and to pro­vide input on the poten­tial impli­ca­tions of leg­is­la­tion when it is being devel­oped, debated, imple­mented or reviewed, and explor­ing new forms of par­tic­i­pa­tion and oppor­tu­ni­ties brought about by infor­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tions tech­nol­ogy and social media;
  (e) Pro­vid­ing for a long-term sup­port­ive envi­ron­ment for civil soci­ety, includ­ing through edu­ca­tion that is aimed at strength­en­ing respect for human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms.” (para­graph 3)

societal enablers

• “Urges States to cre­ate and main­tain, in law and in prac­tice, a safe and enabling envi­ron­ment in which civil soci­ety can oper­ate free from hin­drance and inse­cu­rity.” (para­graph 4)