Book: ‘NGOs under Pressure in Partial Democracies’

Over the past decade, international human rights organisations and think tanks have expressed a growing concern that the space of civil society organisations around the world is under pressure. This book examines the pressures experienced by NGOs in four partial democracies: Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Based on fieldwork, it analyses the complex processes of shrinking political space and the ways NGOs and grassroots organisations try to defend and reclaim their space.

Chris van der Borgh is an associate professor at the Centre for Conflict Studies, Utrecht University. Carolijn Terwindt holds a doctorate from Columbia University, USA. She is currently a legal advisor at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin, Germany.

The nuanced analysis sheds light not just on the types of pressures that civil society organizations are facing but why such pressures are arising and how affectedorganizations are responding to them.
— Thomas Carothers, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, DC, USA

The authors’ analysis offers us an objective perspective on the real violence confronting civil society organizations in different parts of the world and, most importantly, it offers us keys to reveal and expose this violence and respond strategically to the pressures imposed by powerful actors.
— Alejandra Ancheita, Founder and Executive Director of ProDESC (The Project of Economic Cultural and Social Rights), Mexico

Title: NGOs under Pressure in Partial Democracies
Author(s): Chris van der Borgh, Carolijn Terwindt
isbn: 9780230368347
Price: £65.00
Publisher: 2014, Palgrave Macmillan