Civil society, as a network of non-state organizations that voluntarily identify common problems to bring them to the public space, has exposed the democratic hollowing out. It has done this through complaints to the internal judicial system, the preparation of reports on attacks on freedom of the press, the exercise of peaceful protest, among other actions.
For this reason, Peruvian NGOs have suffered violent campaigns of harassment and stigmatization to reduce their action and influence: from the digital disinformation siege promoted by the television channel Willax, the perpetration of public and violent acts by groups such as “La Resistencia Dios, Patria y Familia” (The Resistance God, Homeland, and Family) in front of the headquarters of organizations such as the Legal Defense Institute (IDL) or the National Human Rights Coordinator, to accusations of receiving money to carry out terrorist actions. In addition to this, repression in the regions has been brutal: the protests that arose against the self-coup of former president Pedro Castillo and the current government of Dina Boluarte, between December 2022 and March 2023, left 50 civilians dead and more than 1,400 injured.
Additionally, the Congress is proposing the modification of laws to weaken civil society. In a broader context, one of the most common ways to close the space of civil society is through the approval of national laws that limit its resources, its freedom of association and expression, and impose bureaucratic requirements and sanctions that suffocate them and make their very existence illegal. These laws, almost identical, have been approved in Latin American countries such as Guatemala, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and also on the other side of the continent, in states such as Russia, China, and Egypt, among others.
Peru is no exception. On June 5, the Foreign Relations Commission of Congress approved a bill almost unanimously that seeks to modify the law creating the Peruvian Agency for International Cooperation (APCI), and with it, restrict the freedom of expression and association of the country’s non-governmental organizations.
According to CooperAcción, the main modifications to this law are aimed not only at controlling and limiting their financing, but also “at neutralizing the actions of NGOs.” Specifically, the bill states that the Peruvian Agency for International Cooperation (APCI) is empowered to “maintain an updated registry of all organizations and entities that carry out political activism with direct or indirect financing from International Technical Cooperation.” And that, for the purposes of this law, “political activism is considered to be that which seeks to modify national public policies or electoral results in favor of the interests of private foreign entities with resources from International Technical Cooperation, in clear contravention of the Political Constitution of Peru and the Law of Political Organizations Law No. 28094.”
In other words, “political activism” can be any action by an NGO that coincides with the objectives of international cooperation, aimed at influencing public health or education policies, or citizen oversight on electoral issues, for example.
This bill also provides for a series of sanctions for those who engage in “political activism,” ranging from unpayable fines to the cancellation of their registration with the APCI. The language of this opinion also allows for multiple interpretations, which leaves NGOs in a state of high uncertainty and legal insecurity. For example, it states that “improperly using resources from cooperation or donations received from abroad” results in a “serious” sanction, but the text of the law does not define what “improperly” means. Although this modification to the law has not yet been approved, it is expected to happen in the coming months.
This event has not gone unnoticed by the international community. Last June 10, 16 embassies, including that of the European Union, expressed their concern about this opinion, pointing out that this law “would restrict the capacity of civil society to act in a conducive space,” and that “democracies are more inclusive, equitable, stable, and prosperous when civil society is fully empowered to protect human rights and respond to the needs of citizens.”
The Peruvian State, based on its own commitments to international law, is obligated to guarantee democracy and, within that framework, the right of civil society to associate and express itself. However, we are facing a serious context of a closing civic space that is beginning to show various warning signs, which urgently need attention.
