Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Monday, March 10, 2025
US added to international watchlist for rapid decline in civic freedoms Civicus, an international non-profit, puts country alongside Democratic Republic of Congo, Italy, Pakistan and Serbia
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....READ MORE in The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/09/watchlist-decline-civic-freedoms-civicus
OR on CIVICUS https://monitor.civicus.org/watchlist-march-2025/
Latest Update: 10 March 2025 - The new CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist highlights serious concerns regarding the exercise of civic freedoms in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Italy, Pakistan, Serbia and the United States of America.
The Watchlist draws attention to countries where there is a serious decline in respect for civic space, based on an assessment by CIVICUS Monitor research findings, our research partners and consultations with activists on the ground.
In the coming weeks and months, the CIVICUS Monitor will closely track developments in each of these countries as part of efforts to ensure greater pressure is brought to bear on governments. CIVICUS calls upon these governments to do everything in their power to end the ongoing crackdowns immediately and ensure that perpetrators are held to account.
Descriptions of the civic space violations happening in each country are provided below. If you have information to share on civic space in any of these countries, please write to monitor@civicus.org.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CIVIC SPACE RATING: NARROWED
The United States of America (USA) has been added to our Watchlist as the country faces increasing undue restrictions on civic freedoms under President Donald Trump’s second term. Gross abuses of executive power raise serious concerns over the freedoms of peaceful assembly, expression and association.
Following his inauguration on 20 January 2025, Donald Trump has issued at least 125 executive orders, dismantling federal policies with profound implications for human rights and the rule of law. Some of these orders have eliminated federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes, falsely framing them as discriminatory, and have introduced measures targeting undocumented migrants and transgender and non-conforming people.
Since mid-January, many civil society organisations, both in the US and abroad, have been forced to terminate or scale back essential human rights and humanitarian programmes due to growing uncertainty caused by the arbitrary suspension of foreign aid and a broad freeze on federal funding. The lack of clear guidelines has sparked legal challenges at the national level.
The administration has taken steps to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a decades-old institution, and laid off thousands of its employees. It has also withdrawn from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UN Human Rights Council, exited the Paris Climate Agreement, rejected the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals, and announced sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), targeting its personnel as well as individuals and entities that cooperate with it. These actions could further undermine global efforts for climate justice, human rights, and civic freedoms.
These measures come amid a broader potential curb on the freedom of association. On 21 November 2024, the US House of Representatives passed a bill allowing the Treasury Department to revoke the tax-exempt status of non-profits it deems to be supporting terrorism, without due process guarantees. This would grant the executive branch sweeping authority to financially cripple civil society organisations based on broad and vague criteria.
The sustained onslaught on peaceful pro-Palestine solidarity at university campuses has seen students and faculty members increasingly subjected to harsh sanctions without justification. On 30 January 2025, President Donald Trump, signed an executive order purportedly aimed at combating antisemitism, which calls for the cancellation of visas and the deportation of non-citizen college students and others who have participated in pro-Palestinian protests. On the same day, reports alleged that a far-right group was compiling a list of pro-Palestine protesters for potential deportation.
Authorities have also targeted climate justice activists protesting the Mountain Valley Pipeline project in Virginia and financial institutions supporting fossil fuel expansion. Another concern is the growing role of private corporations in suppressing environmental activism. Two key developments exemplify this: the USD 300 million lawsuit against Greenpeace by the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline; and research exposing the fossil fuel industry’s role in driving the proliferation of anti-protest laws.
The first months of 2025 have seen an alarming legislative push in multiple states, further threatening restrictions on the freedom of peaceful assembly. At least 12 state-level bills introduced between January and February 2025 would impose new restrictions on protests. Notably, bills in Indiana (SB 286), Iowa (HF 25), Missouri (HB 601), New York (S 723), and North Dakota (HB 1240) seek to criminalise the use of masks during protests. They could also expose protesters to heightened surveillance technologies and intimidation tactics, as evidenced by the doxingattempts over the past year against pro-Palestine protesters.
Meanwhile, Minnesota’s new bill (SF 1363) introduces new civil and criminal liabilities for those supporting protesters who engage peacefully in demonstrations on a critical public service facility, pipelines or other utility property. These restrictions show a broader trend since 2017 of escalating constraints on protests and could trigger a new wave of repression against those expressing dissenting views.
There are also serious concerns about freedom of expression and access to information, particularly for journalists covering politically sensitive issues. On 11 February 2025, two journalists from the Associated Press (AP) were banned access to White House-related press briefings due to the agency’s editorial policy to continue to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its internationally recognised denomination rather than the presidentially decreed “Gulf of America.” AP filed a lawsuit against administration officials, but a federal judge denied the agency’s request for the immediate restoration of full access to presidential events for its journalists, ruling that access to the president is at his discretion and not a constitutional right.
Moreover, on 25 February, the White House press secretary announced that the administration will decide which media outlets can access the presidential press pool. These recent decisions raised concerns about unprecedented restrictions on public access to independent reporting on government affairs.
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| Trump & Musk |
Pro-Palestinian activist's arrest meant 'to intimidate and chill speech' ... Omar Baddar: Mahmoud has a green card & is married to an American who is 8 months pregnant w/their kid. His only crime seems to be free speech against genocide. Now he's being smeared by the secretary of state of the Trump regime who is promising to deport him. This is dark time in America.
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| A person holds a sign during a protest following the arrest of Palestinian student protester Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia University. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters The Guardian |
ACLU warns pro-Palestinian activist's arrest meant 'to intimidate and chill speech'
The Trump administration’s decision to have immigration authorities arrest pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil for alleged support of Hamas is an attack on free speech, the American Civil Liberties Union warned.
“This arrest is unprecedented, illegal, and un-American,” said Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project.
“The federal government is claiming the authority to deport people with deep ties to the U.S. and revoke their green cards for advocating positions that the government opposes. To be clear: the first amendment protects everyone in the US. The government’s actions are obviously intended to intimidate and chill speech on one side of a public debate. The government must immediately return Mr Khalil to New York, release him back to his family and reverse course on this discriminatory policy.”
‘Reeks of McCarthyism’: outrage after Ice detains Palestinian student activist
Arrest of Mahmoud Khalil a ‘targeted, retaliatory’ attack on his first amendment rights, say civil rights groups https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/10/palestinian-activist-mahmoud-khalil-reactions
Arrest of pro-Palestinian protester shows escalation in Trump's efforts to stifle Free Speech #FreeSpeech #Palestine #weaponzingICE #IsraelOwnsTrump
Mahmoud has a green card & is married to an American who is 8 months pregnant w/their kid. His only crime seems to be free speech against genocide.
Now he's being smeared by the secretary of state of the Trump regime who is promising to deport him.
This is dark time in America.
For seven days, not a single food truck has entered Gaza. Today, Israel cut off all electricity—shutting down the last sources of clean water. No food. No water. For two million people, half of them children. This isn’t war. It’s extermination....
For seven days, not a single food truck has entered Gaza.
Today, Israel cut off all electricity—shutting down the last sources of clean water.
No food. No water. For two million people, half of them children.
This isn’t war. It’s extermination.
Israel has armed, treated, and coordinated with ISIS and Al-Qaeda rebels in Syria—for years.
Even mainstream media reports confirm it.
This is the truth they’re trying to bury today.
Independent Lebanese geopolitical commentator. Follow Sarah on X x.com/sahouraxo and Instagram www.instagram.com/sahouraxo/pr...
‘Ceasefire’ is a hollow word for Palestinians – the killings, displacements and denial of aid continue. A winding down of operations in Gaza has allowed Israel to turn its attention to the West Bank, with devastating effects
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| Israeli soldiers during a military operation in Jenin, West Bank, 4 March 2025. Photograph: Alaa Badarneh/EPA |
It has been just over six weeks since a ceasefire came into effect in Gaza, and it’s clear that it would more accurately be called a “reduce” fire, rather than a cessation. Scores of people are still being killed; enough, in any other scenario, to be deemed both alarming and newsworthy. More than 100 people have died since 19 January, Gaza’s civil defence service spokesperson says. Those killings constitute, alongside other breaches, a grim record of hundreds of reported ceasefire violations by the Israeli government.
The latest among them is Israeli authorities’ decision to halt humanitarian aid into Gaza, in order to put pressure on Hamas to accept new ceasefire terms: mere hours after the first phase of the ceasefire expired, Israel cut off all supplies. In doing so, Israel is using food and civilian relief as a political tool to achieve its objectives, a move that the Qatari foreign ministry, the midwife of hostage releases and ceasefire agreements over the past few months, called “a clear violation” of the terms of the truce and of international humanitarian law.
This is a blockade that won’t affect just a few Palestinians: it encompasses every single person living in Gaza. The entire population is held hostage. According to Amjad al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza, “the whole of Gaza’s population relies fully on aid, of all kinds, as a result of the demolition of the economic and social infrastructure”. The ceasefire as it stands now is no impediment to the death, starvation and besiegement of an entire population whose homes have been destroyed, and whose babies are still freezing to death in the chill of torn tents.
In the West Bank, the pattern of slow but grinding assault has been unfolding for months, and escalating for weeks...READ MORE
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