C7 Summit Pre-Event | Recommendations on Open Societies

Transparency International Germany and the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law, co-chairs of the C7 Working Group "Open Societies", invite you to attend an event to discuss C7 recommendations on Open Societies. The event will take place on May 4th, 2022, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. CET, in the context of the C7-Summit.

Over the last two months a dedicated C7 Working Group has been drafting a list of key priorities that G7 countries should focus on to protect civil society and our democracies. The group considered the tragic events unfolding in Ukraine and the worldwide democratic backsliding and shrinking space for civil societies in order to formulate the following three demands towards G7 governments:

1. Set up a Civic Space Task Force
   • As a global initiative of G7 governments and in cooperation with multiple stakeholders and financial institutions 
   • Support civil society by securing adequate and uninterrupted funding for NGOs, especially for those under threat from authoritarian regimes and conflict 
2. Adopt a revised G7 Open Society Statement as a follow up to the G7 2021 one
   • Such statement should become an integral part of this and the following years’ G7 Communiqués 
   • The statement should focus on issues such as technology and human rights, freedom of assembly, transparency and anti-corruption, media and journalist protection, women and children rights, security and civic space, and human rights in emergency responses
3. Implement the G7 and Open Society commitments in national contexts and abroad
   • G7 countries should commit to align their domestic laws and policies with their commitments on Open Societies 
   • These commitments should be integrated in their respective National Action Plans within the Open Government Partnership initiative 

We hope you can join our discussion around these key asks together with international experts and decision-makers, including Clément Nyaletsossi Voule (UN-Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association), Andrew Preston (Director of the UK Government’s Joint Anti-Corruption Unit), Markus Busch (Head of Division II A 4 - Combating Economic, Computer, Corruption and Environmental Crime, German Federal Ministry of Justice), Sebastian Haselbeck (Policy Advisor for Open Government and Digital State at German Federal Chancellery), Oliver Rack (Open Government Netzwerk Deutschland), Sebastian Fiedler (Member of German Parliament), members of the German G7-Sherpastaff (tbc). Further speakers are yet to be confirmed.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Transparency Germany Secretariat at the following address: office@transparency.de.

Open Societies Statement

The C7 proposes the following key issues for discussion and integration in a renewed G7 Open Societies statement: Download (pdf)