Business and Civic Space: Reflections from our recent roundtable

The 2023 Summit for Democracy – hosted by the United States, Costa Rica, the Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, and Zambia on March 29-30, 2023 – aims to strengthen democratic institutions, tackle corruption, and defend human rights around the world. The U.S. government recognizes the private sector as a crucial partner in achieving these goals, as laid out in the call for private sector engagement issued by the State Department on February 3.

To inform discussions about the role of business in achieving these goals at the Summit, BSR and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) convened a roundtable on March 7 with representatives from government, civil society, and business on the private sector and civic space. The roundtable explored how companies are supporting the enabling environment for democracy and core components of civic space, and featured breakout sessions on civic engagement and education, freedom of expression and media freedom, and protections for human rights defenders (HRDs). Participants identified challenges and opportunities for business support of civic space, as well as tactics that business can carry out going forward to help foster democratic principles and societies.

Despite the challenges – including growing politicization of issues related to democracy and civic space, anxiety about backlash, lack of trust between stakeholders, and presence in countries with increasingly undemocratic regimes – many companies are already taking action in support of civic space. This includes activities such as:

• Supporting own employees’ civic engagement through time off to vote, voter registration efforts, and other civic engagement education initiatives.  
• Public commitments of respect for the rights of human rights defenders and civic freedoms in human rights policies and other publicly facing materials.
• Integrating attention to civic space and human rights defenders – including labor organizers – across human rights due diligence processes.
• Participation in initiatives such as Civics at Work, Business for America, the Business & Democracy Initiative, Leadership Nov, Civic Alliance, etc.
• Outreach and partnership with civil society organizations to understand the risks, opportunities, and needs on the ground related to civic freedoms.
• The development of products, services, and tools that support and protect the work of journalists and other human rights defenders.
• Collaboration with democratic governments and allies (often behind the scenes), particularly to address urgent crises and specific incidents.

Business has a critical role in advancing democracy and supporting vibrant civic spaces around the world. While a number of internal and external barriers exist, there are also opportunities for business to expand on current efforts and innovate new approaches to support civic space – including through both public and private advocacy, ensuring alignment across the company in line with human rights commitments, preparing for crisis, and other actions that proactively foster an enabling environment for civic freedoms and democracy more broadly. BSR is already partnering with leading companies to implement initiatives in support of civic space and democracy in line with both their business strategy and their values.

 Across all of these actions, collaboration between government, civil society, and the private sector will continue to be critical to overcoming these barriers and ensuring that civic spaces and democratic freedoms are protected. The upcoming Forum on Business and Democracy, convened on March 28 by CSIS as part of the 2023 Summit for Democracy, provides but one opportunity for companies to continue to engage in this conversation with a focus on concrete tactics that business leaders can deploy to support democracy globally. We look forward to working together to promote a world where both democracy and business continue to flourish.

This article was co-written with Kindra Mohr, Esq. , BSR . Thank you to our roundtable co-hosts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Marti Flacks .

#democracy #bizhumanrights #civicengagement #humanrightsdefenders #sustainability #sustainablebusiness