CPDE’s main focal point in Mexico, DECA Equipo Pueblo, launched the National Campaign for the Recognition of CSO Rights and an Enabling Environment on December 14th. The aim of the campaign is to promote joint actions and demand that government actors respect the legal and institutional framework, as well as the consultation mechanisms for public advocacy.
DECA Equipo Pueblo is leading this initiative with dozens of other CSOs in Mexico who agree that there is neither an enabling environment nor openness on the part of the federal government for civil society participation. They have all come together to stand up against the adverse conditions impeding them from continuing with their social projects and democratic processes. Shrinking civic spaces in the region has meant that many have had to limit their coverage and spheres, while others have opted for definitive closure of their activities. One prominent example of this closure is the government’s decision to shut down Indesol (Mexico’s National Institute for Social Development), created in 1994 to ensure public policies that promote CSO work across the country.
The campaign demands an enabling environment for the work of CSOs that involves different dimensions: a legal-institutional framework; the economic component for their sustainability; the political environment for dialogue between government and civil society, as well as covering the cultural dimension that seeks to change how society views and recognises CSOs. On January 20th DECA Equipo Pueblo, along with more than 70 other Mexican CSOs, wrote a letter to President López Obrador laying out these demands.
The CSO promoters of the National Campaign, in addition to gaining adherents, intend to combat the stigma and generalised discrediting to which we are subjected; for a joint positioning, with concrete proposals, addressed to the federal government, local authorities, congresses and donors with proposals for a safe, respectful and unrestricted environment for civil society.
The campaign has been launched as part of CPDE’s global campaign against shrinking civic spaces, a response to the global pattern of repression that has been limiting the autonomy and the rights to association, expression, and participation of civil society and people’s organisations. This repression has only been exacerbated since the start of the pandemic.
Miguel Concha, a prominent Mexican human rights defender, published an article on the campaign in one of Mexico’s leading newspapers, La Jornada. You can read the article here (Spanish).
You can watch the launch of the campaign here and their video summarizing the campaign and why it’s so important to fight against the global trend of shrinking civic spaces (both are in Spanish).
Laura Becerra, Executive Director of Deca Equipo Pueblo, claims “It is important to have a leadership that encourages and coordinates orgnisations for collective action.”
Watch this space for updates on the campaign’s planned activities.