CIVICUS Lens: 25 June 2026

JUNE 2026 HIGHLIGHTS

Welcome to the latest edition of the CIVICUS Lens newsletter, from CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance.

This month we highlight democracy and civic space under strain. In Latin America, far-right outsider Abelardo de la Espriella has won Colombia’s presidential runoff, which spells trouble for the 2016 peace agreement, the country’s climate commitments and the safety of human rights defenders. In Peru, right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori has narrowly won the presidential runoff, inheriting a collapsed party system and a civil society facing intensifying repression. There’s the danger that, like her authoritarian father, she will respond to political turmoil by concentrating power.

In Armenia, a re-elected prime minister is pivoting westward but threatening those who disagree with him, something Europe’s leaders are ignoring as they deepen their engagement. Meanwhile Turkey’s president has been drawing lessons from the defeat of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán. Since he had Istanbul’s mayor arrested last year, he has moved to try to make sure a unified opposition can't do to him what it did to Orbán.

In Pride month, our interviews with civil society activists highlight battles over LGBTQI+ rights, being fought with particular intensity in Africa. In Ghana and Senegal, new laws have extended criminalisation of LGBTQI+ people and others who stand for their rights. But Botswana tells a different story, where a colonial-era ban on same-sex relations finally came off the books after over a decade of civil society campaigning. With conservative groups mobilising, this victory marks the start of a new phase of struggle.

We also spoke with organisers of the 2026 Budapest Pride Community Festival, approved by police in May following Orbán’s electoral defeat. It was a hard-won victory for civil society, even as Orbán’s anti-LGBTQI+ laws remain on the books. As always, the activists we interviewed are clear-eyed about what they’re up against — and they’re not giving up.

For more analysis of civil society action, visit our website, and check out the latest civil society trends in our 2026 State of Civil Society Report.

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ARTICLES

Right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori has won Peru’s presidential runoff, narrowly defeating leftist Roberto Sánchez to become the country’s ninth president in a decade. She inherits a recurring crisis characterised by a collapsed party system that produces fragmented elections and weak presidents, frequently removed by Congress. The mounting costs fall on a population living with crime and poverty and a civil society facing intensifying repression. Keiko is the daughter of authoritarian former president Alberto Fujimori, and the danger is that she’ll respond to political turmoil by taking the path he did of concentrating power in the hands of an autocratic leader.

Colombia’s 21 June presidential runoff will have far-reaching consequences. Far-right outsider Abelardo de la Espriella goes head to head with left-wing senator Iván Cepeda. At stake are the survival of the 2016 peace agreement, Colombia’s role as a global climate leader and the civic space conditions for environmental activists and human rights defenders. The collapse of the once-ruling mainstream right, whose candidate finished a distant third in the first round, shows that Colombia’s traditional political establishment has been pushed aside. Polarisation is the order of the day.

The defeat of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán sent a clear warning to autocrats who govern through skewed but still competitive elections that a unified, credible opposition can oust them. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is evidently determined to avoid this. Since the arrest of Istanbul mayor and leading presidential contender Ekrem İmamoğlu in March 2025, his government has systematically dismantled the opposition’s capacity to mount a challenge ahead of the next election in 2028. Authorities have imprisoned the frontrunner, ousted the main opposition party’s leader and widened their civic space crackdown, attacking protest rights and academic and media freedoms.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has won re-election on a promise to pivot towards the European Union and reset the country’s regional relations following the end of the country’s long conflict with Azerbaijan. His opponents campaigned to rebuild ties with Russia, which tried to sway the vote. Pashinyan’s abrasive campaigning style, however, further raises concerns over a slide towards personal rule, with police and courts targeting protesters, opposition politicians and religious leaders. European leaders currently deepening their engagement with Armenia must make it conditional on respect for the rule of law, political pluralism and civic freedoms.

Tunisia’s President Kais Saied has turned the country’s criminal justice system into a weapon of political control, jailing civil society staff, human rights defenders, journalists and political opponents for the crime of criticising him. At least nine civil society staff have received jail terms this year, with some running to eight years or more. Organisations that defend migrants’ rights, a target of Saied’s populist scapegoating, face suspension and dissolution alongside criminal prosecution. The European Union, bound to Saied by a migration control deal, is saying little. Unless Tunisia’s international partners push for adherence to human rights standards, the country’s slide into dictatorship will continue.

A UK court’s conviction of two Chinese spies who tracked Hong Kong exiles shows how far China is prepared to go to suppress criticism beyond its borders. Transnational repression against the Hong Kong diaspora encompasses bounties on exiled activists, surveillance, financial harassment and criminalisation of families in Hong Kong. Inside Hong Kong, authorities continue to prosecute people for the most basic acts of dissent, including those who called for accountability after a devastating 2025 apartment block fire. China’s crackdown on freedom of expression is epitomised by the 20-year sentence handed to media owner Jimmy Lai. States that host Hong Kong exiles must urgently strengthen their protections.

INTERVIEWS