At the World Assembly this year, CIVICUS convened the inaugural meeting of delegates from Eurasia. Civil Society activists from the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, the Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Turkey attended this informal meeting aiming to outline common interests and discuss interregional cooperation initiatives. 

Both Russian and English were used at the meeting, though both languages are not native to the region and are used primarily for communication between nations. The language issue was identified by participants as a major obstacle for broadening discussion of regional issues from local civil society to the international arena, and global discussions and meetings. English is not spoken in the region and few civil society leaders can speak the language. Russian, on the other hand, is understood and spoken to a lesser extent in the Caucasus than in Central Asia, and not at all in Turkey. 

Local civil society is also in great need of international solidarity, as Eurasia is a region where civil society space is shrinking dramatically. For example, in the Ukraine, as Svitlana Kuts from Center for Philanthropy explained, it became possible after the "Orange Revolution" for civil society to engage on issues of governance, so the findings of CIVICUS Civil Society Index project were used for advancing of the concept of civil society development, which was accepted by the government of the Ukraine. However, much work remains to be done - in other countries, like Kyrgyzstan, which had a "Velvet Revolution" four years ago, civil society was not allowed to participate in any decision-making.

In introducing themselves, the participants of the meeting talked about main issues they work on in their countries. Three participants from Tajikistan - Ms. Shonasimova and Mr. Shabolov from the Aga Khan Development Network and Mr. Sultonov from Rural Development Initiatives - explained that in their country, people are still traumatised from the devastating civil war of 1992-1997, and civil society tries to work within the sectors of reconciliation, community support and development, and also curbing torture, corruption and poverty. Tajikistan is the poorest country in Eurasia and has its own specific challenges, including the large numbers of the population who migrate for work, issues of humanitarian coordination, and anti-poverty project efforts.

Kazakhstan with its rich oil reserves, and corporate interests prioritised by the authoritarian government, has a relatively developed civil society that tries to lobby at the national and local government and Parliamentary level for the rights of citizens and civil society groups. Inessa Frants, the director of the Kazakh NGO "Institute for Development Cooperation" noted that in Kazakhstan and the region, they are faced with and discuss the same issues as those discussed at the World Assembly. "I was amazed at how similar our discourses in Central Asia and here at the Assembly are. We are doing the same things and are concerned with the same threats to us", says Inessa.

Tolekan Ismailova is frustrated by recent developments in Kyrgyz Republic, that have caused it to lose its revolutionary momentum, allowing old party and organised crime leaders to reinstate themselves in government, and target human rights defenders and advocacy groups. As a leader of the Citizens Against Corruption Movement and the founder of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society in Kyrgyzstan, she has been a target of numerous checking and administrative penalties, and physical assaults and arrests in recent years. Tolekan also mentioned that the growing power of the intergovernmental regional Shanghai Cooperation Organisation threatens citizen participation, human rights and freedoms of civil society in the region.

Charlie Buxton, a program coordinator of INTRAC in Central Asia, argues that Central Asia has its own unique position in the world, and should not be grouped with Pakistan, Afghanistan, or China and Russia since it is differs significantly - both culturally and historically - from these other countries and nations.

Mustafa Durna of the Turkish Association of Committees for Monitoring Parliamentarians and Elected Officials insisted that Turkey was part of the same region and shared the same challenges and issues in its struggle for democracy and common freedoms. Corruption, torture, women's rights, and restrictions to civil freedoms were identified as common problems for all in the region. Mustafa has spent 12 years in prison for his activism and he understands the cost of fighting for rights and holding governments accountable. 

The main outcome of the meeting was the idea of uniting civil society efforts and voices so that they will have a stronger voice in global civil society, in order to gather support and join in solidarity to stand for common freedoms and citizen activism. "Foreign funders with their neo-liberal logic are very against regional integration, against us trying to push for self-identification and independence. Our voices are very weak at the international level. We, civil society, have to come together to make us stronger, to make our voice stronger at the UN, at global civil society meetings, and other international platforms. This depends only on us and our commitment to regional cooperation", said one of the participants. 

The result of this inaugural Eurasian informal meeting at the World Assembly was to create a virtual network of regional activists for developing a common strategy to bring the local to the global, uniting our common civil society voice.