Over the years, ICNL and various government, multilateral, and civil society organizations (CSOs) have developed a variety of tools to do just that. Some of these tools track laws that violate specific freedoms, while others assign scores to civic space in individual countries. In monitoring such information, ICNL and other stakeholders can identify threats and trends, prioritize interventions, and mobilize key partners in the fight to protect civic freedoms.
Monitoring & Assessment
How do you measure a concept as broad as civic space, which encompasses freedoms of assembly, association, and expression, as well as ideas of public participation and philanthropy?
ICNL Alliance Monitoring Tools
Civic Freedom Monitor
ICNL’s Civic Freedom Monitor provides up-to-date information on legal issues affecting civil society and freedoms of association, expression, and peaceful assembly. Reports are available on fifty-four countries and eight multilateral organizations.
COVID-19 Civic Freedom Tracker
The COVID-19 Civic Freedom Tracker monitors government responses to the pandemic that affects civic freedoms and human rights, focusing on emergency laws.
Civil Society Organization Sustainability Index
In partnership with FHI 360, ICNL produces the Civil Society Organization Sustainability Index, which assesses seven key dimensions: legal environment, organizational capacity, financial viability, advocacy, service provision, sectoral infrastructure, and public image. Over 70 country reports are available.
Monitoring the Right to Free Assembly
ECNL and its local partners have produced these comprehensive country reports on the right to free assembly in eleven countries of the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe.
US Protest Law Tracker
The U.S. Protest Law Tracker documents initiatives at both the state and federal levels that restrict the right to protest in the United States.
Fundamental Freedoms Monitoring Project
The Fundamental Freedoms Monitoring Project evaluates the extent to which the freedoms of association, expression, and assembly are exercised in Cambodia.
Enabling Environment National Assessments
Designed jointly by ICNL and CIVICUS, the Enabling Environment National Assessment is an action-oriented research tool that local CSOs can use to assess the legal, regulatory, and policy environments in their countries. Between 2013 and 2016, assessments were conducted in twenty-two countries around the world.
CSO Meter
In partnership with local experts and CSOs, ECNL is piloting the CSO Meter, a tool for monitoring the environment for civil society in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine countries. The CSO Meter measures both laws and practices against international standards and best practices.
ICNL Alliance Reports & Other Resources
Briefer on Monitoring Public Assemblies
This ECNL briefer provides an overview of the principles and practices that human rights groups and activists should consider before, during, and after monitoring public assemblies, protests, and demonstrations.
The State of Civic Freedoms in the Middle East and North Africa
This 2018 report, prepared by ICNL in partnership with Beyond Reform & Development and Menapolis, assesses the environment for CSOs and the exercise of civic freedoms in Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan, and Kuwait.
Assessment Tools for Measuring Civil Society's Enabling Environment
This 2014 issue of Global Trends in NGO Law examines eight tools that seek to measure the enabling environment for civil society.
Other Monitoring Tools & Resources
CIVICUS Monitor
The CIVICUS Monitor is a web-based platform that provides constantly updated information on civic space and citizen activism in every country of the world. Each country is placed in one of five broad categories – closed, repressed, obstructed, narrowed, or open –based on its overall respect for civic freedoms.
CIVICUS State of Civil Society Report
Each year, the CIVICUS State of Civil Society Report examines key trends affecting CSOs and citizen movements around the world.
Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation Progress Reports
The Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation works with more than 160 governments to track progress in implementing the principles for development effectiveness enshrined in the 2011 Busan Partnership Agreement.
European Civil Society Watch
This online tool powered by the European Civic Forum gathers alerts, analyses, and institutional resources related to civic space in Europe.
Monitoring Matrix on Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development
With input from ECNL, the Balkan Civil Society Development Network developed this tool to measure the health of the legal, regulatory, and financial environments in the Western Balkans and Turkey. The matrix focuses on three core areas: basic legal guarantees of freedoms, frameworks for CSOs’ financial viability and sustainability, and government-CSO relations.
Past Monitoring Initiatives
The Hudson Institute's Index of Philanthropic Freedom
This 2015 report identifies the barriers and incentives involved in donations of money and time to social causes by individuals and organizations.
Improving the Measurement of Civic Space
This 2015 report by the Transparency and Accountability Initiative discusses the development of a global index to foster effective advocacy and protect and enable civic space.
CIVICUS' Enabling Environment Index
This composite index relies on secondary data to assess the governance, socio-cultural, and socio-economic environments for civil society in 109 countries in 2013.
ARVIN Framework
Developed jointly by ICNL and the World Bank in 2003, the ARVIN Framework is an analytical tool for assessing the environment for civic engagement. The tool looks at legal, governmental, socio-cultural, and economic factors affecting five aspects of civic engagement: association, resources, voice, information, and negotiation.
All Monitoring & Assessment Resources
A Toolkit for National Human Rights Institutions

Learning Series: Access to Resources in Latin America and the Caribbean

Elections and Civic Space: Lessons from Africa

Guide on Registration of LLCs and Individual Entrepreneurs in Kyrgyzstan

Review of Georgia’s Law on Assemblies and Manifestations

Civic Freedom Violations Committed by Myanmar’s Military Junta
