Civil society organisations (CSOs) across Europe are facing increasing restrictions that limit their abilities to carry out activities, with “foreign agent” legislations being debated across the continent. Although these laws are typically introduced under the premise of increasing the transparency of CSO funding or combatting foreign interference in local policy-making, in reality, they unfairly target CSOs and restrict civic space.
A similar “foreign agent” law has also been proposed in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s entity, Republika Srpska. While on 28 May 2024 the Government of the Republic of Srpska decided to withdraw the draft from Parliament for 'further consultations', once that process is completed, it is apparently committed to re-tabling the draft.
ECNL has been providing support to CSOs to navigate the challenges stemming from such a proposal, including through sharing good examples of CSO resilience strategies from other European countries. We brought together experts from Hungary (Ökotárs), Serbia (Civic Initiatives) and Slovakia (VIA IURIS) to share their experiences and inspire civil society in Republika Srpska to collaborate and design joint strategies against civic space restrictions.
The country case studies detail the arguments and joint advocacy actions civil society used to respond to each country’s specific restrictions and analyse their success. While prepared to help CSOs in Republika Srpska, these case studies can also serve as an inspiration to any groups that are facing similar challenges in their work and are looking for ways to protect their space and ability to operate.