The Conference of International NGOs (CINGO) held its General Assembly on 7-9 April (agenda) and adopted a series of texts. Among these, a Recommendation on the shrinking civic space and actual political developments calls on the Council of Europe and its member states to take determined measures to counter the effects of the democracy backsliding on civil society, including:
- to ensure that the New Democratic Pact is about people’s participation and the expansion of civic space
- to mainstream the protection of civic space in all the CoE processes and to ensure an easy access for civil society actors to bringing complaints and seeking support
- to prepare a legal instrument on national measures to create incentives for financial and other support to civil society organisations and human rights defenders
- to set up a mechanism to receive and follow-up on complaints regarding civil society and human rights defenders received from the Conference of INGOs, including a process to deal with urgent requests for action to ensure protection of persons and organisations concerned, and to halt worrisome national legal developments
- to react vigorously to civic space infringements in member states.
CINGO also heard various testimonies from Georgian civil society representatives about the increasingly degraded situation in the country, and from Ukrainian civil society and media representatives formerly detained by the Russian authorities. It adopted a recommendation to the Council of Europe on the ongoing war of aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine.
The Conference further issued the following statements:
- for the immediate liberation of the Mayor of Istanbul, and a return to the prevalence of human rights and rule of law in Türkiye (proposed by the European Young Bar Association)
- on the announced EU anti-poverty strategy (proposed by the Committee for the European Social Charter and its monitoring mechanisms);
- a statement under the title “Internal security and border management in the context of migration: Respect for human rights is essential”.
On 8 April, a special youth event “International Roma Day: Literacy for Inclusion – Remembering the Past, Shaping the Future” was held.
The Conference also endorsed a report on CINGO’s visit to North Macedonia in November 2024 which focused on the general situation of civil society in the country, and the results of a recent visit to Poland by the Committee on Migration Issues, concerning the accommodation of migrants.
CINGO also decided to establish a new Committee for the International Volunteer Year 2026, which will also mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of CINGO.
The documents adopted and the abridged report of the session are all published as soon as they become available on the webpage of the Spring session.
