Briefer summarizes these laws and implementation practices governing civil society organization in the 35 Organization of American States member States.

This document was designed to help participants in this process and other stakeholders understand the Principles, advocate for their adoption, assess country laws and practices against the Principles, and convene multi-sector dialogues to discuss the country’s legal environment as compared to the Principles.

This report on human rights defenders in the Americas, published in 2011 by the Inter‐American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), is a follow up to the body's 2006 report on the same subject.