Report will be available here from 25 February 2024!
Report prepared by Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA) in partnership with Eurasian Coalition for Health, Rights and Sexual Diversity (ECOM), Eurasian Women’s Network on AIDS (EWNA) and Sex Workers’ Rights Advocacy Network (SWAN) to ensure the effects of the shrinking civic space and criminalization relevant to LGTQI+ communities, people living with HIV, people who use drugs and sex workers are reflected.
“CIVICUS assessments of the Europe and Central Asia region show a predominantly constrained civic-space environment, with a significant number of countries classified as narrowed, obstructed, repressed or closed. Since approximately 2019–2020, monitoring systems have recorded a steady pattern of deterioration across the region, including new legal restrictions on civil society, increased pressure on independent media, and intensified responses to public protest and advocacy.”
“Laws and provisions on “Anti-Drug Propaganda”, “LGBT propaganda”, “Family Values”, “public morality” and “child protection” narrow the space for evidence-based discussion of key population health and rights, with knock-on effects for HIV prevention, access to accurate information and community empowerment.”
“Community-led organizations across the region have not remained passive in the face of shrinking civic space – through adaptive service delivery, community-led monitoring, coalition-building, strategic litigation and engagement with international human-rights mechanisms, communities continue to assert rights, document harms and influence policy processes despite increasing constraints. These responses highlight both the resilience of community-led movements and the importance of sustained support for evidence-based advocacy in restrictive environments.”
To know more read the full report “Shrinking civic space and marginalised communities in Eastern Europe and Central Asia”:
- Report is the outcome of an extensive regional data collection effort, conducted in 2025. Drawing on structured inputs from ten countries, the report examines the civic space and legal environment context affecting community-led HIV and TB responses in EECA.
- Grounded in international human-rights standards, the analysis focuses on four interrelated dimensions that are central to the functioning of civil society and the sustainability of community-led responses: freedom of association; freedom of peaceful assembly; freedom of expression and access to information; and the criminalization of key populations and protection from reprisal.
- Intended for policy-makers, international and regional organizations, donors, human rights mechanisms, and civil-society and community-led networks working in the fields of HIV, TB, harm reduction, gender equality and human rights.
- Aims to support informed policy dialogue and evidence-based advocacy by situating developments observed in 2024-2025 within a clearly documented regional and global context.