UN report warns of “existential threat” to civil liberties
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Country/Region
09 February 2026
Shrinking aid systems and expanding security policies are eroding democratic rights and freedoms, a UN expert warned in a report published last year that received no coverage from mainstream media.
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The July 2025 report by Gina Romero (pdf), the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, describes an “existential threat” to civic freedoms and urges coordinated international action to reverse it.
The report, based on interviews and discussions with various stakeholders and 65 submissions, outlines key principles for building a sustainable and just aid architecture that would sustain and empower a vibrant civil society and civic engagement.
Despite the fundamental threats to basic rights and freedoms the report describes, it appears to have received no coverage in mainstream media.
Aid cuts and rising securitisation
The report warns that the global aid system is being dismantled as states redirect funds from development and civil society towards defence and security.
The crisis deepened in early 2025 when the United States froze or terminated foreign assistance, dismantling the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
A February 2025 survey cited in the UN report found that 55% of NGOs lost staff and 67% reduced or shut down essential services, affecting millions of people worldwide.
The trend extends beyond the US. The Group of Seven (G7) countries — which provide three-quarters of all official development assistance — plan to reduce contributions by 28% in 2026 compared with 2024, the largest drop since 1960.
The UN itself faces a $2.4 billion budget shortfall in 2025, forcing layoffs and limiting humanitarian operations.
At the same time, states are reallocating resources to military budgets: global military expenditure rose by 9.4% in 2024, while funds for development, democratisation, and civic participation declined.
Repressive laws and self-censorship
The Special Rapporteur documents the growing misuse of counter-terrorism powers to restrict civic action.
Governments have expanded surveillance, arbitrary detention, transnational repression and asset freezes, often invoking the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards on money-laundering.
The report highlights recent examples from Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Hungary, El Salvador, Peru and Bosnia and Herzegovina, where “foreign agent” or “foreign influence” laws have been introduced or revived to restrict civil-society participation and access to funding.
These measures have fostered widespread self-censorship, with many organisations reducing visibility, avoiding sensitive language, and stepping back from public advocacy to evade surveillance or reprisals.
A crisis for rights and sustainable development
Romero situates the rights to freedom of assembly and association within broader global commitments, such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Pact for the Future, the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations.
These are all built on the principles of collaboration, inclusion, and equity, and on the human dignity affirmed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The failure to fund these global commitments is having a direct impact on civic space, the report underlines.
UN data shows that only 17% of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets are on track, nearly half show minimal progress, and more than one-third have stalled or regressed.
Adequate funding, Romero warns, is urgently needed to prevent further backsliding on states’ obligations – though funding alone will not be enough.
Between 2019 and 2023, 13 development banks financed 1,058 projects worth at least $88 billion in 18 countries with restricted civic space.
However, the report highlights that government refusal to allow civil society participation means these investments risk being lost to authoritarianism, corruption and inequality.
Funding bypasses local civil society
The report also points to problems with the ways in which aid is distributed.
Despite decades of pledges to localise spending, it remains heavily centralised. The humanitarian sector illustrates a wider pattern across aid systems:
- in 2025, UN agencies received 54% of global humanitarian aid, and international NGOs 23%;
- national and local civil society groups received less than 1% of total funding, down from 2% in 2024; and
- commitments to allocate 25% of humanitarian funding to local actors remain unmet.
Romero stresses that international funding has become the “only lifeline” for independent civic work on democracy, rights, and environmental justice, as governments increasingly use domestic funding to co-opt or control organisations.
Short-term, project-tied grants from donors, she adds, have undermined sustainability and eroded trust between civil society groups and local communities, a gap fuelled by populism and anti-rights rhetoric.
Communities most affected
The report highlights the disproportionate impact on marginalised communities:
- LGBTQI+ groups: 120 grants in 42 countries have been suspended, cutting violence-prevention, healthcare and legal-aid services;
- women-led and youth-led organisations: according to UN Women, 90 % of surveyed groups in 44 countries report reduced funding, with nearly half expecting to close within six months; and
- anti-corruption NGOs: surveys by the Civil Society Friends of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) show sharp declines in operating capacity after the US funding freeze.
Romero cautions that such losses further weaken accountability and deepen inequalities.
Emerging responses and principles for reform
Despite mounting pressure, the report notes that civil society groups are developing new, locally rooted forms of resilience.
These include community-based fundraising, cooperative models of support, and cross-sector alliances to protect shared civic space.
The report closes with a call for transparent, inclusive reform of the global aid system to sustain civic freedoms.
Romero urges states and donors to repeal restrictive funding laws, institutionalise civil society participation, and embed civic space protections into all aid and security frameworks.
She calls for human rights-based security policies, predictable multilateral financing, and for at least half of aid to reach local actors directly.
Funding, she concludes, must prioritise human dignity, equality, and sustainability over short-term or profit-driven interests.
Documentation
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