Shrinking Civil Society Space
A Case Study of Malawi
Billy Mayaya
Civic and Political Space Platform
Malawi
What are the Issues?
Repressive Bills/laws
Compromised freedom of expression
 Lack of consultation on key issues
Poor economic performance
Absence of genuine dialogue
Repressive laws: THE NGO ACT
The Malawi Government continues to enact legislation targeted at
shrinking the space of civil society.
Chief among these is The NGO Act 2000 which stipulates that NGOs
must apply to the Ministry under which their activities fall for
recognition.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to register new NGOs particularly
those with a perceived ‘political’ agenda.
A recent attempt to register an organisation called ‘The Centre for
Federalism in Malawi’ was rejected for the following reasons:
 No sufficient reason was given of why issues of federalism affect
Malawi.
• The word ‘Malawi’ is a protected word and therefore requires the
approval of the minister of Justice according to the law
Repressive laws: THE POLICE ACT
No demonstration or public rally can take place without notifying the
Police or City Councils, both of whom can refuse to give consent
The responsibility of any damage to property by rioters or looters is
placed on the organisers of a demonstration
In July 2011, the Police used live ammunition to quell nationwide
demonstrations. 20 unarmed civilians were shot dead. The
President labelled these as ‘looters’ and vowed not to allow any
more demonstrations. In the aftermath, 3 human rights activists
had their houses petrol bombed.
All calls from civil society to investigate all cases of politically
motivated violence have fallen on deaf ears.
The Police say they do not have the capacity to investigate.
A University student activist was murdered for criticising the current
administration.
Civil Society have been accused of colluding with the opposition to
bring the government down
Repressive laws: Threats of de-registration
Human Rights organisations have been constantly under threat of deregistration for advocacy work that has been deemed critical of
the Malawi Government.
The Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC) is the largest
network in Malawi with over 91 members. It has been threatened
with deregistration for its advocacy work.
This includes our call for Malawi to recognise LGBTI communities. We
have been labelled enemies of Malawian cultural values and
proponents of a gay agenda
Calling on the President to explain his ill-gotten wealth
Calling on the First Lady to do charitable work without being paid
$10,000 a month of taxpayers’ money
Compromised freedom of expression
• Section 46 of the Penal Code empowers a Minister to close down or
ban a publication
• Presidential decree to deposit MK2,000,000 (76,000 Kroner) before
demonstrating
• Refusal to grant permission to demonstrate
• Malawi Communication Regulatory Authority banned the private
media from airing the events of the July 20 demonstrations
• The absence of Local Government polls continues to shrink the
political space for civil society to carry out Civic, Voter and Human
Rights in order to help citizens internalise democratic values so that
they can participate meaningfully in the political process.
What can civil society do to engage positively in
governance assessments?
The civil and political space platform in Malawi has
since 2009 been spearheading comprehensive
reporting on the state of governance in Malawi. This
approach covers political, economic, corporate and
media governance. It would be ideal to augment this
process with an annual SWOT analysis of civil society
capacity to assess governance in light of the threat of
shrinking political space.
What do we need from our governments in order to be
able to play our role in defending human rights and
participate actively in governance assessments?
We need an enabling environment in which a
comprehensive governance assessment can take
place. This can only be assured in a context in which
pressure is consistently exered on governments to
commit to international protocols, regional
governance instruments and most importantly the
local constitutional framework.
RECOMMENDATIONS
• Time for a UN Special Rappourteur on Civil
Society?
• Annual Civil Society Space Reporting –
CIVICUS
• Campaign to reverse retrogressive legislation
(naming and shaming)
• Global collaboration and monitoring of civil
society space
• Build capacity in awareness raising techniques