SHDM 2 SESSION 2: Disinformation and civic space: implications for human rights and democracy
Monday 16 March 2026
Statement
This morning’s discussion about disinformation and its impact on civic space is critical, especially at a time of budget cuts within the OSCE which have an impact on the space available for civil society to effectively engage with participating States and the broader organisation.
Against this backdrop, we would like to call your attention to the role that government-organised NGOs, GONGOs, are playing to challenge human rights and liberal democratic narratives, including at this organisation’s human dimension pillar proceedings.
As we have seen, GONGOs employ the use of disinformation, “whataboutism”, and other tactics to spread and amplify key messages employed by authoritarian and illiberal actors. They ignore – or dismiss – criticism of human rights trends as illegitimate or based on Western interference, while promoting pro-government narratives.
At the same time, GONGOs within the multilateral system ]can create the impression of the presence of dynamic and independent civil society within particularly authoritarian States. We refer explicitly to GONGOs from the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan. In reality, independent civil society, including human rights defenders and independent media, in these countries are facing unprecedented repression, including reprisal for engaging with the OSCE.
The OSCE has a unique role as one of the few multilateral bodies where very few barriers exist to prevent direct engagement between independent civil society and States. To preserve this, participating States should take concrete steps to counter the efforts of GONGOs while not inadvertently and negatively affecting civic space within this organisation.
In this regard, our recommendations draw from the work of Professor Sebastien Peyrouse at the George Washington University. Participating States should establish a working group of independent NGOs, experts, and researchers well-versed in OSCE issues. This group should be mandated to scrutinise, fact check, and analyse GONGO’s statements and activities at OSCE events; as well as their operations and government connections. This work can culminate in an annual report detailing those observations.
Against this backdrop, I’d like to ask the panelists the following question:
- In addition to the recommendations that have been included in this intervention, what further steps would the panelists recommend to counter and neutralise the proliferation of GONGOs within the OSCE?
