On October 13, 2017, the Ugandan government froze the financial accounts of ActionAid Uganda, a vocal opponent of the Age Limit Bill, and accused the civil society organization (CSO) of conducting illegal activities. ActionAid Uganda is one of several organizations, including Solidarity Uganda and the Great Lakes Institute for Strategic Studies (GLISS), recently targeted by…
Last month, civil society organizations across Uganda endured office raids by the country’s police, who spent hours removing documents and confiscating phones and laptops. The raids in Uganda offer insight into a deeper—and troubling—trend: in many parts of the world, civil society organizations are experiencing a crackdown by governments that are increasingly turning to bureaucratic…
In August 2017, two Mexican anti-corruption civil society groups #FiscalíaQueSirva and #VamosPorMás mobilized citizens on social media to demand greater independence for the newly created Federal Prosecutor General Office (FGR). Both groups are trying to “stop the candidacy” of Raúl Cervantes as the head of the FGR, as well as implement a new system and…
On September 20 and 21, 2017, Ugandan police raided the offices of ActionAid Uganda and Solidarity Uganda. The police accused the civil society organizations of “being involved in illicit financial transactions” and “subversive activities to destabilize the country.” Both organizations believe they may have been targeted as part of a broader ongoing crackdown on members…