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	The fight for democracy in global institutions by PSI, International Trade Union Confederation   Mar. 2025   As we mark World Water Day, austerity policies and privatisation continue to strain public water services, while the sector faces mounting pressure from climate change demands and reduced development assistance, writes David Boys from Public Services International (PSI):   As multiple crises across the world deepen, PSI and its unions continue to organise and mobilize to protect labour rights and improve universal access to quality public services. Increasing threats require greater solidarity, unity and clarity of purpose. Our job is to protect the workers and to ensure that our communities receive the necessary public services.   Growing trade and military conflicts will increase pressure on government budgets, leading to more austerity measures, degradation of public services and further privatisations. This will impact national and local/regional governments, already financially strained.   Key challenges facing the sector include:   Austerity policies choking public spending; Privatisation enabling massive capital extraction from public services; Climate crisis demanding increased investment; Reduced and redirected development assistance; Stagnating progress in water and sanitation access.   In the water and sanitation sector, the privatisation started under the Thatcher government in 1989, taken up and imposed on many countries through IMF and World Bank structural adjustment policies, has proved to be highly problematic from the perspective of workers and users.   Many local authorities terminated or refused to renew private concessions contracts which failed to meet the needs of people and planet. And the UK's privatised water utilities are in deep crisis, with the biggest, Thames Water, defaulting on debt payments in 2024, despite paying billions to shareholders since the initial privatisation.   As a result of increasing political resistance from trade unions and community activists – organised as the Global Water Justice Movement – the momentum of privatisation in the sector was slowed by 2010. Regrettably, the momentum has recently increased, but with some new actors and dynamics.   Although the World Bank denies that it supports privatisation, it is driving the global paradigm that says public funds should be used to attract (subsidise) private investors into public services. Hence, some of the biggest private equity funds are availing themselves of public funds to facilitate private takeover of public utilities.   PSI continues to support unions struggling against privatisation. But we need systemic reform of the global systems which allow public services to be undermined. We work on the reform the global tax system which allows the wealthy and big corporations to avoid paying their taxes – the key source of public funds.   This process is moving forward, thanks to the member states of the African Union who presented a resolution passed at the UN General Assembly to reform the global tax system under the aegis of the UN. This resolution was possible thanks to the work of unions and civil society allies to pressure all levels of governmen   Many countries will also need debt relief, as they assumed massive debts during the Cold War and decolonisation, such that they now pay more in interest to northern banks than they do for many public services. Northern banks and investors continue to resist this demand for debt relief.   Along with supporting unions to resist privatisation, we are helping some of the most downtrodden workers to organise into unions and defend themselves. These are the sanitation workers who empty the pit latrines full of human excrement, often with no tools other than a bucket and shovel, and with no personal protective equipment.   Although they are fulfilling a fundamental social need to keep our cities and towns safe, they are discriminated, ostracised and denied their human rights. We are working with the Dutch labour federation FNV, the ILO and many unions to bring our strength to sanitation workers.   http://publicservices.international/resources/news/world-water-day-unions-unite-for-public-water-rights-and-sanitation-justice?id=15720&lang=en http://publicservices.international/resources/news/its-time-for-public-service-workers-to-fight-back?id=15793&lang=en http://publicservices.international/resources/news/thousands-of-protesters-march-in-new-york-against-trumps-public-service-cuts-?id=15697&lang=en http://www.ips-journal.eu/topics/economy-and-ecology/an-ocean-of-gold-but-no-water-to-drink-8172/ http://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/Water/annual-reports/a-76-159-friendly-version.pdf http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-water-and-sanitation/annual-reports http://www.ipsnews.net/2025/03/aid-cuts-will-shatter-global-water-sanitation-progress/ http://www.iied.org/making-water-use-fair-for-everybody http://reliefweb.int/report/world/water-driven-hunger-how-climate-crisis-fuels-africas-food-emergency   Sep. 2024   The fight for democracy in global institutions - International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)   Millions of workers have already mobilised for policy change and in the run-up to political elections. They have organised to expand worker power or took militant strike action on the job. Around the world, they are fighting for a vision of “democracy in which workers set the course in our communities, workplaces, countries, and international institutions together.”   This far-reaching campaign now places its focus on high-level global institutions, where government delegations negotiate key standards, treaties, and goals that effectively shape the world of work and thereby all of human society.   When governments gather in New York, USA, for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and Summit of the Future (SOTF), in Washington, USA, for the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), and in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the annual Conference of the Parties (COP 29), they find democratic trade unions demanding a New Social Contract which constitutes the labour movement’s plan “for a world where the economy serves humanity, rights are protected and the planet is preserved for future generations.”   But there is another force, one that is unelected and seeks to dominate global affairs. It pushes a competing vision for the world that maintains inequalities and impunity for bad-faith actors, finances far-right political operatives, and values private profit over public and planetary good. That force is corporate power.   In consultation with social allies, global union federations, and researchers, the ITUC is scrutinising publicly available research to identify key players in the corporate world that profit by undermining democracy at all levels.   Corporate underminers of democracy is the ITUC’s list of emblematic companies that benefit financially by continuing to violate trade union and human rights, monopolise media and technology, exacerbate climate catastrophe, and privatise public services. They represent a wider corporate world that protects and expands its own profits by undermining democracy.   These companies deploy complex lobbying operations to undermine popular will and disrupt existing or nascent global policy that could hold them accountable. They are invariably led by ultra-wealthy individuals that support and finance far-right politicians and parties to further their own interests. When the far-right wins power, it discredits and defunds democratic global institutions; reduces taxes on the wealthy and on corporations; undercuts living wages; favours bilateral aid financing over multilateralism; and cracks down on human, trade union, and democratic rights, as evidenced by the ITUC’s Global Rights Index..   * The ITUC represents 191 million workers in 169 countries and territories and has 340 national affiliates.   http://www.ituc-csi.org/corporate-underminers-of-democracy-en Visit the related web page
	People Power Under Attack by CIVICUS Monitor, agencies   Mar. 2024   Hypocrisy by powerful countries undermined the rules-based international order in 2023, making it harder to promote human rights and resolve the world’s most devastating wars, global civil society alliance CIVICUS announced in a new report Thursday.   In its 13th annual State of Civil Society Report, Johannesburg-based CIVICUS details how powerful states selectively chose to respect international laws, shielding allies but castigating enemies. The most blatant examples are countries that rushed to Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s invasion but backed Israel’s assaults on civilians in Gaza, and vice versa.   “Armies, rebels and militia around the world committed horrific human rights abuses in 2023 because they knew they could get away with it thanks to a flailing international system full of double standards,” said Mandeep Tiwana, CIVICUS Chief Officer of Evidence and Engagement. “Starting with the UN Security Council, we need global governance reform that puts people at the centre of decision making.”   The State of Civil Society Report assesses activism around the world in the past year and analyses the year’s events from a civil society perspective. The report is based on over 250 interviews and articles published by CIVICUS covering over 100 countries and territories.   Besides its findings on global governance and conflict, the new report details civil society’s role in addressing climate change, protecting democracy and expanding gender rights.   The report shows that with powerful states repeatedly blocking international action, grassroots civil society organisations were central to responding to major crises in 2023.   In Ukraine, volunteers documented human rights violations and helped with reconstruction of devastated cities, while Sudanese youth groups delivered humanitarian aid in the worst-hit conflict zones and offered solutions to achieve accountable civilian governance. In Myanmar, civil society led the way with ideas to restore democracy alongside peace. Local Palestinian journalists were the world’s key lifeline to first-hand information about the war in Gaza.   But instead of protecting such members of civil society, fighters and their state backers routinely undermined or even attacked them over the last year. In Gaza, for instance, Israel’s military killed record numbers of journalists. Meanwhile, states criminalised activists who supported migrants and refugees fleeing conflict.   “Attacks on civil society were the norm in 2023, even from governments that claim allegiance to democratic values,” said Tiwana. “The prevalence of such abuses proves the international system desperately needs reform. We are facing an acute crisis of moral leadership on the international stage.”   War zones were not the only places where the powerful tried to silence civil society. The report shows that authoritarian governments repressed activists at major meetings from the COP28 climate change conference in Dubai to the G20 meeting in New Delhi. Even at the UN General Assembly and Sustainable Development Goals summit in New York, bureaucratic blockages resulted in exclusion of many civil society representatives from decision-making spaces.   The report urges global governance reform at September’s International Summit of the Future at the UN headquarters in New York, including new rules to moderate or reduce veto powers at the Security Council. Civil society has proposed numerous avenues for reform to increase people’s participation in global governance systems. These include calls for the creation of a UN Civil Society Envoy to better foster people’s participation at the world body as well as a UN Citizen’s Initiative to enable people to bring matters before the UN for resolution. Civil Society also calls for a UN Parliamentary Assembly to give directly-elected people’s representatives a say in UN decision-making. All of these suggestions would increase people’s oversight and contribution to global governance.   “Throughout 2023, civil society offered workable, people-centered solutions to the world’s most pressing problems,” said Tiwana. “But time and again, global institutions and leaders preferred to sideline activists rather than work with them to achieve positive change. If humanity is to overcome today’s multiple overlapping crises, civil society must have a seat at the table.”   http://publications.civicus.org/publications/2025-state-of-civil-society-report/ http://www.civicus.org/index.php/state-of-civil-society-report-2024 http://www.civicus.org/index.php/media-center/news/news http://lens.civicus.org/   The CIVICUS Monitor, which tracks freedom of association, peaceful assembly and expression in 198 countries and territories, announced in a new report that almost one third of humanity now lives in countries with ‘closed’ civic space.   This is the highest percentage–30.6% of the world’s population–living in the most restrictive possible environment since CIVICUS Monitor’s first report in 2018. Meanwhile, just 2.1% of people live in ‘open’ countries, where civic space is both free and protected, the lowest percentage yet and almost half the rate of six years ago.   These findings, detailed in the People Power Under Attack 2023 report, point to a worldwide civic space crisis requiring immediate, global efforts to reverse.   “We are witnessing an unprecedented global crackdown on civic space,” said CIVICUS Monitor lead researcher Marianna Belalba Barreto. “The world is nearing a tipping point where repression, already widespread, becomes dominant. Governments and world leaders must work urgently to reverse this downward path before it is too late.”   The CIVICUS Monitor rates each country's civic space conditions based on data collected throughout the year from country-focused civil society activists, regionally-based research teams, international human rights indices and the Monitor's own in-house experts. The data from these four separate sources are then combined to assign each country a rating as either ‘open,’ ‘narrowed,’ ‘obstructed,’ ‘repressed’ or ‘closed.’   Seven countries saw their ratings drop this year. These include Venezuela and Bangladesh, each now rated ‘closed’ due to intensifications of existing crackdowns on activists, journalists and civil society.   Democratic countries slipped too. Europe’s largest democracy, Germany, fell from ‘open’ to ‘narrowed’ amid protest bans and targeting of environmental activists. Bosnia & Herzegovina also declined to ‘obstructed,’ the twelfth European country downgraded since 2018.   One of 2023’s most dramatic slides occurred in Senegal, once considered among West Africa’s most stable democracies. Senegal entered the ‘repressed’ category amid sustained government persecution of protesters, journalists and opposition ahead of February elections.   “The range of countries where authorities restricted citizen participation in 2023 shows clampdowns are not isolated incidents but are part of a global pattern,” said Belalba. “A global backslide requires a global response. If citizens are not able to freely gather, organise and speak out, the world will not be able to solve inequality, confront the climate crisis and bring an end to war and conflict.”   CIVICUS Monitor data shows that worldwide, authorities target people’s freedom of expression above all else. Half of all documented violations in 2023 targeted free speech, with incidents ranging from a bombing outside a journalist’s house in Indonesia, the arrest of the head of a radio station in Tunisia and police pepper-spraying a reporter covering a protest in the United States.   Our research also reveals that intimidation is the number one tactic to restrict citizen freedoms. Human rights defenders, activists and media experienced intimidation in at least 107 countries. Media in particular bear the brunt, with 64% of incidents targeting journalists.   “Freedom of expression is the cornerstone of democracy, but our data shows it faces serious threats,” said Belalba. “Assaults on journalists and media not only stifle individual voices, they are assaults on the very foundation of open societies.”   Despite these alarming trends, People Power Under Attack 2023 highlights areas of progress too. Timor-Leste’s civic space moved up to the second best rating ‘narrowed’ from ‘obstructed,’ reflecting the country’s commitment to fundamental freedoms. Four other countries saw ratings improve, though they remain in ‘repressed’ or ‘obstructed’ zones.   The report also details bright spots where countries made steps toward opening societies. Among these, Fiji repealed a restrictive media law. The Kenyan courts recognised the right of LGBTQI+ people to associate. Even Tajikistan, rated ‘closed,’ created a national human rights strategy with civil society input. Still, these and other improvements remain halting and often disconnected compared to widespread repression.   “These small steps show that even amid unprecedented restrictions, civil society is pushing back,” said Belalba. “These courageous acts of resistance by active citizens and civil society organisations give us hope that the downward trend is not permanent and can be reversed.”   http://monitor.civicus.org/globalfindings_2023/ http://ishr.ch/latest-updates/human-rights-defenders-are-the-lifeblood-of-the-universal-declaration-of-human-rights/ http://ishr.ch/25-years-un-declaration-on-human-rights-defenders http://forum-asia.org/statements-open-letters-call-to-action/ http://aseanmp.org/publications/ http://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2024/mounting-damage-flawed-elections-and-armed-conflict http://www.globalexpressionreport.org/ http://www.globalr2p.org/publications/statement-on-the-75th-anniversaries-of-the-genocide-convention-and-the-universal-declaration-of-human-rights/ http://www.openglobalrights.org/anti-green-authoritarianism-democratic-backsliding-heating-planet/ http://healthyenvironmentisaright.org/right-to-a-healthy-environment-global-coalition-wins-un-human-rights-prize/ http://theconversation.com/repression-of-climate-and-environmental-protest-is-intensifying-across-the-world-246379 http://crecep.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/ http://unece.org/environmental-policy/public-participation/press-releases-and-public-statements Visit the related web page
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