Amnesty International Reports on Restrictive Laws Targeting Civil Society in the Americas

Amnesty International has released a report titled "Tearing Up the Social Fabric: Impact of Restrictive Laws on Civil Society Organizations in the Americas," highlighting a concerning trend of restrictive legal frameworks adopted between 2024 and 2025 in countries such as Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela. These laws impose disproportionate controls on civil society organizations (CSOs), affecting their ability to support communities, defend human rights, operate effectively, and access resources.

The report identifies common elements across these laws, including campaigns of stigmatization against CSOs and human rights defenders, labeling them as "internal enemies," "foreign agents," or "anti-patriotic." Such rhetoric fosters public distrust and creates a climate of intimidation, leading to self-censorship among organizations. Additionally, these laws were often enacted without adequate public consultation or dialogue, justified under the guise of transparency or preventing financial crimes, despite existing regulatory mechanisms.

The legislation includes broad and ambiguous definitions, allowing for discretionary interpretation and selective enforcement against critical organizations and individuals. Administrative registration systems condition the operation of organizations on state approval, lacking clear deadlines and operating under opaque criteria. These mechanisms amount to prior authorization, prohibited under international human rights standards. Furthermore, organizations are required to comply with excessive obligations, such as detailed financial and operational reports, diverting resources from their core work.

Control over funding is another central element, with restrictions on access to international cooperation, abusive taxation, and prior authorization requirements undermining the sustainability of essential projects, particularly those related to human rights, gender, the environment, and Indigenous peoples. In some contexts, banks and donors have conditioned their relationships on compliance with these laws, leading to the reduction or cancellation of programs supporting vulnerable populations.

These laws also require the disclosure of detailed information about donors, beneficiaries, and staff, without effective data protection safeguards, exposing human rights defenders and marginalized communities to increased risks of surveillance and persecution. Moreover, several legal frameworks establish disproportionate sanctions with wide discretionary powers, including excessive fines, freezing of bank accounts, confiscation of assets, suspension or cancellation of legal status, and even criminal penalties.

The impact extends beyond organizations, as civil society organizations play a fundamental role in the social fabric and the protection of human rights. When these organizations are silenced or dismantled, communities lose essential allies in their efforts to seek justice, access information, and defend their rights. Human rights defenders interviewed by Amnesty International described a severe deterioration in their ability to act, influence public policies, and support communities, with many reporting emotional exhaustion, reduced activities, forced migration, or self-censorship.

Amnesty International concludes that the analyzed laws fail to comply with international obligations on freedom of association, freedom of expression, privacy, and the right to defend human rights. Rather than strengthening transparency, these frameworks contribute to the shrinking of civic space and reinforce authoritarian practices. The organization calls on governments in the region to repeal or amend laws that violate freedom of association, end stigmatizing rhetoric against civil society organizations and human rights defenders, ensure that any regulation of CSOs complies with the principles of legality, necessity, and proportionality, facilitate access to national and international funding without undue restrictions, and refrain from criminalizing the legitimate work of human rights defenders. Amnesty International also calls on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the donor community to reject the misuse of financial standards as a pretext to restrict civil society.