“We human beings want to get together with others, live together, eat together, laugh together, cry together, play music together, dance together, work together, and act collectively to improve our lives.”
- Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the ICNL Global Forum
The right to freedom of association protects our right to form or join groups without external interference. This right ensures that people can join together and act collectively – whether to influence public policy, practice a religious faith, bargain for better working conditions, pursue shared interests, or anything else.
ICNL works with local organizations, governments, and the international community to promote this right and build environments in which people can collaborate to improve their lives. This page showcases some of our work on this subject and key resources related to the right.
Access to Resources
The ability to seek, receive and use resources is an inherent part of the right to freedom of association. This includes human, material and financial resources, whether from domestic, foreign, or international sources.
Seminal 2013 report from the UN special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association which discusses the international legal framework governing civil society’s ability to access financial resources. The mandate also published a 2022 report on recent trends and challenges threatening civil society’s access to financial resources.
Governments worldwide are increasingly adopting laws that create foreign influence registries, frequently in the name of transparency. However, these laws are often written with overbroad and vague provisions, which are then used by governments to stigmatize or criminalize civil society – particularly organizations which receive funding from abroad.
Global survey of foreign influence registration laws which compares over 30 proposed or enacted bills and their potential impact on civil society. Also includes substantive arguments against overbroad foreign influence registration laws and potential response strategies.
In 2024, Georgia enacted a new law which requires CSOs and media organizations to register as “implementing organizations of foreign power interests” if they receive certain amounts of foreign funding. Read our overview of the law here.
See also our analysis of the law’s implementing regulation, an overview of the implications of the law for civil society, and our assessment of amendments made to the law in October 2024.
In this 2024 report, the UN special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association highlights the harmful impact of stigmatizing rhetoric targeting civil society – including narratives around “foreign influence.”
The internet is both a tool and a space for exercising freedom of association. While the digital age has created new opportunities, it has also brought new challenges. ICNL works with our partners to understand and address the challenges and opportunities facing freedom of association online.
In this 2019 report, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association discusses the opportunities and challenges of the digital age.
This guide offers a checklist of principles to consult before embarking on digital policy initiatives, recommendations for Open Government Partnership (OGP) commitments, and examples of positive practices that OGP members are already undertaking. Governments and civil society actors alike can draw on this resource to co-create enabling digital reforms.
• ICNL’s Civic Freedom Monitor: up-to-date information on legal issues affecting civil society in 50+ countries.
• ECNL’s CSO Meter: Detailed assessments of the environment for civil society in six Eastern Partnership countries in Europe.
• ICNL’s Digital Legal Library: a collection of nearly 4,000 laws, reports, and other legal resources from more than 200 countries and territories, written in more than 60 languages.
Check out FOAA Online, an ICNL resource that provides easily accessible legal arguments for lawyers, activists, and judges to use to protect and promote association and peaceful assembly rights. Arguments are organized by theme and focus on common restrictions on FOAA rights around the world.
Core Legal Instruments
The following international and regional legal instruments help define the right to freedom of association under international law.
Since 2023, ICNL and ECNL have been advocating for the UN Human Rights Committee to develop a General Comment on the right to freedom of association – the only core civic freedom for which they have not provided authoritative guidance. As part of these efforts, ICNL and ECNL developed this report summarizing UN sources of law on association rights.
Explore our full resource collection, which includes reports, legal analysis, and curated collections of materials covering an array of issues impacting civic space around the world.
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