Creating an Environment for Political Reform

An important component of success for activists struggling for democratic reform in closed societies involves the political environment in which they live and conduct their work. The challenges faced by activists in autocratic nations are immense, and international actors have a role to play in trying to provide a more enabling environment.

Authoritarian regimes typically put in place legal mechanisms such as laws that not only limit the activities of international and domestic NGOs and parties; but also subversion and libel laws against citizens who try to express their views and opinions publicly or online; laws against “intermediaries” of communication such as Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and telecommunications providers; legalized surveillance of citizens including their online activity; and a wide range of technologies to enforce these legal tools including the Internet filtering and surveillance technologies being discussed today.

Needless to say, this makes it very difficult for activists and political parties to work in these countries and the international community has a role to play in seeking more enabling environments for our partners by advocating policies and implementing programs that foster greater access to technologies for citizens, that seek more openness of these regimes, that advocate for increased freedom of expression and that protect the rights of privacy of its citizens in these countries.

The political environment provides the playing field under which all of this occurs, and we all have a role to play in trying to create an enabling environment in which activists and groups seeking democracy reform can work to build democratic societies without fear using new media tools.