UK civic space under unprecedented threat, conference warns
The ability to hold power to account in the UK is under unprecedented attack, campaigners and charity leaders warned at a conference this week.
Speaking at the Don't Be Silenced: Protecting Our Right to Campaign conference on Tuesday, 27 January, civil society groups said that legal, regulatory, and political pressures are threatening the freedoms that underpin a just and democratic society.
Checks on power which have historically kept the UK safe are being removed, paving the way for the rise of authoritarianism, they said.
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UK civic space is at a precipice
- Paul Parker
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Hosted by Quakers in Britain and Speak Out, the conference at Quaker head offices in London brought together campaigning charities to discuss how to respond collectively to the threat.
Speakers included Areeba Hamid (co-executive director, Greenpeace), Akiko Hart (director, Liberty), Danny Sriskandarajah (CEO, New Economics Foundation), and Paul Parker (recording clerk, Quakers in Britain).
Delegates highlighted a decade of legislative changes, heightened scrutiny from the Charity Commission, and hostile media narratives, which together have created a chilling effect on civil society.
Attacks on the ability to campaign not only threaten individual organisations but also the wider democratic accountability in the UK, they said.
Paul Parker said: “UK civic space is at a precipice. When the right to speak out, to organise and to challenge those in power is under attack, we all face a diminished democracy. Healthy democratic debate is an essential prerequisite for peace.
“If we do not act together, the freedoms that allow the just and equal society our faith leads us to work towards will be eroded."
Conference sessions explored migrant justice, legal protections for campaigners, suppression of dissent, global trends in shrinking civic space, the role of technology in repression, and strategies for framing and messaging.
Delegates discussed how civil society can strengthen collective responses and ensure that campaigning remains possible and safe for all communities.