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Civic Space
GPS
In an open and healthy civic space, individuals and groups are able to freely organize, participate, and communicate. They are also able to claim their rights and influence social and political structures around them.
In recent years, Brazil has seen an increasing assault on civic space through deliberate actions to repress civic action, restrict channels of social participation, censor public debate and silence critics. In this way, Brazilian democracy has been undermined from within by a series of strategies that have threatened fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens, diminished the transparency and effectiveness of government activities, sometimes deviating from the public purpose of mandates.
Through 2021 and 2022, the Igarape Institute monitored media on a daily basis to identify the key strategies deployed to circumscribe civic space, as well as the institutional responses and resistance by civil society groups to counter these setbacks. Our findings were published in quarterly analyses, a total of 8 bulletins Civic Space GPS. The publication lists strategies and tactics in accordance to Igarapé’s own sociological typology available at “The Ágora is Under the Attack: assessing the closure of civic space in Brazil and around the world“. The typology was later updated and can be found at “A Typology to Understand Strategies and Tactics for Attacking the Civic Space“.
This Bulletin is part of a wider platform which includes a podcast series “Você Pode Mudar o Mundo” (in Portuguese) and the book “A Defesa do Espaço Cívico”(english version in 2021).
Follow Brazil indicators bellow
Threats
Find below the evolution of reported threats to understand the most commonly used trategies and tactics.
3.088
total number of threats and attacks to Brazilian civic space between January 2021 and December 2022.
As variações no período devem levar em consideração mudanças no monitoramento detalhadas na metodologia e na tipologia do GPS.
Por essa razão, o aumento no registro de ameaças pode se relacionar a essa mudança.
Reactions
Actions implemented by one or more government branches to halt the closure of the civic space and actions taken by the civil society, private groups, universities, among others, which also resist attacks. Although efforts are of crucial importance, they are not necessarily enough to avoid setbacks and the closure of the civic space.
2.941
Is the number of reactions from the public institutions and resistance actions to contain attacks on civic space in Brazil between January 2021 and December 2022.
Main institutional actors
Judiciary: 717
36.4%
Legislative: 464
23.5%
Public Prosecutor's Office: 334
16.9%
Resistance
institutional actors
Civil society: 550
56.7%
Political parties: 127
13%
Academya: 58
5.9%
1.971 institutional response
970 resistance actions
* The reactions mappead for each bulletin´s edition may presents new actors, when compared to the previous ones.
Since January 2021, the methodology to identify and catalogue incidents changed and became more robust. As a result, increases in reported reactions may be related to these changes.
Selected data, see the full list in the publication.
Source: Igarapé analysis based on news published by the press.
Quarterly bulletin
The Civic Space GPS 7
The closure of civic space — the sphere between business, the State and family in which citizens organize, debate and act to influence public policies and the direction of the country — continues...
The Civic Space GPS 6
The closure of civic space — the sphere between business, the State and family in which citizens organize, debate and act to influence public policies and the direction of the country — continues in Brazil. In...
Civic Space GPS 5
The closure of civic space — the sphere between business, the State and family in which citizens organize, debate and act to influence public policies and the direction of the country — continues in Brazil....
The Civic Space GPS 4
The closure of civic space — the sphere between business, the State and family in which citizens organize, debate and act to influence public policies and the direction of the country — continues in Brazil....
Civic Space GPS Bulletin 3
The third Civic Space GPS Bulletin reports an increase in abuse of power
Civic Space GPS Bulletin 2
O espaço cívico — esfera entre os negócios, o Estado e a família onde cidadãos e cidadãs se organizam, debatem e agem para influenciar as políticas públicas e os rumos de nosso país — está sob ataque
Civic Space GPS
Ações deliberadas para fechar o espaço cívico são cada vez mais comuns no Brasil