Iran Feature: Parliament Forces Civil Society Underground (Ghazi)

UPDATE 1530 GMT: The Parliament has referred the legislation on civil institutions back to committee after the Speaker, Ali Larijani, criticised "ambiguities" in the language of the bill.
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The Majlis, Iran’s Parliament, is in the process of approving a bill that, according to civil activists, aims at eliminating independent civil institutions and replacing them with a government organization. According to the provisions of this bill not only are individuals who plan to establish non-governmental or civil organizations required to be fully cleared and approved by the Ministry of Intelligence and supervisory committees, but even organizations that already have operational licenses and have been active need to reapply for new permits. If the latter are not approved, the supreme supervisory committee will annul their current permits and ban their activities.

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Iran Special Report: The State of Civil Society...and What to Do About It (Razzaghi)

A democratic government necessitates a strong democratic society without which it cannot sustain itself.

- Expansion of the discourses of democracy, human rights, and peace for the creation of a healthy, vital and democratic society.

- Development of knowledge and skills on networking, advocacy, leadership, peace-building, and civil society building.

- Empowerment of the political, social, cultural, and digital environments as key strategies in the transition to democracy and strengthening of civil society. Empowerment of citizens through increasing awareness, education on rights and responsibilities, expansion of knowledge and skills to work within associations, and practice with democracy at the micro-level.

- Development and expansion of communications and relations with international civil society.

- Reconstruction of social networks both in physical and cyber space and expansion of cooperation and solidarity among civil activists; coalition among civil society organizations; and coalition-building with international civil society.

- Development of a strategy to combat the imposing culture of silence, stagnation, and limitations on the circulation of information;media-pluralism and free access to information among activists and organizations.

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