The State Of Civic Freedom: Access To Associational Rights In Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan And Kuwait
Developed By:
Beyond Group
In Partnership With:
The International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL)
Menapolis
USAID
2018
The State Of Civic Freedom
Access To Associational Rights In Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan And Kuwait
In 2016, Beyond Group (previously Beyond Reform and Development) and Menapolis in partnership with the International Center for Not-for-Proft Law (ICNL) launched a two-year field research study on the environment for civil society organizations (CSOs) and civic freedoms in five Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries. The research study, which focused on Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan, and Kuwait, assesses the effect of formal and informal restrictions on the functioning and viability of CSOs.
This report presents the findings from that study. It begins with an overview of the legal framework for civic freedoms in each of the study countries. The report then presents regional findings from the study in a comparative analysis across the five countries. Next, the report provides the detailed findings from each country, presenting data on the impact of the laws, regulations, policies, and practices on CSOs and other civic actors. Each country section identifies opportunities for action to mitigate the legal restrictions and other challenges that the CSO sector faces.
This study finds that individuals’ access to civic freedoms in Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan, and Kuwait follows diverse patterns of openness and restriction. Not surprisingly, a country’s laws and the government’s policies and practices in implementing those laws were identified as primary factors in enabling or restricting civic freedoms.
However, the findings indicated that the positive effects of enabling laws could be undermined by poor implementation, while restrictive laws were in some cases less constraining due to lax enforcement. In Morocco, Lebanon, and Tunisia, where the legal frameworks are generally more conducive to the exercise of civic freedoms, restrictive government practices included lengthening and complicating basic procedures, and threatening or harassing CSOs. In Jordan and Kuwait, on the other hand, where legal frameworks are relatively more restrictive, CSOs were comparatively optimistic about their access to various rights.