Freedom of association – the right of people to get together and organise for a common purpose – is one of the essential building blocks for a free and open society. In most of the Middle East, though, governments seek to restrict civil society activity, as I discussed here and in my book, What's Really Wrong with the Middle East.

A report published last week by the EU-funded Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network reviews the current situation for NGOs in 11 countries of the eastern and southern Mediterranean, from Turkey to Morocco – and it's a generally bleak picture.

"Freedom of association has experienced setbacks in the past few years and there has been very little positive development worth mentioning," the report says (full text here). It continues:

Since 2007, some countries have amended their laws on NGOs (Jordan) or have announced changes (Egypt, Syria), while others have recast their legislation in ways that have a direct impact on NGO activities (Israel, Tunisia).

The trend observed in the past three years is that new restrictions have been put in place in the name of public order, security and the fight against terrorism. These restrictions have led to arbitrary denials of registration for many organisations, in particular those active in the human rights field (Libya, Syria, Tunisia), including in promoting diversity and minorities (Greece, Morocco, Syria, Turkey). 

The restrictions have also taken the form of ever-growing interference in NGO activities by the authorities, for example by impeding their right to peaceful assembly (Algeria, Israel, Egypt), intervening in the affairs of their boards (Syria, Tunisia) or dissolving organisations on arbitrary grounds (Palestine). These measures contradict both the spirit and the letter of Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 

These developments have left human rights activists in a deplorable situation, marked by physical and psychological attacks, smear campaigns and restrictions on the freedom of movement of many activists in a number of countries of the eastern and southern Mediterranean. Sentences imposed on NGO activists, in some cases by military tribunals, also provide distressing evidence of the trend towards more restrictive policies observed over the past three years.

The one bright spot in all this seems to be Lebanon, which has the most liberal legal framework for NGOs in the region. "In practice it may be considered the only Arab state with hardly any real restrictions to the right to freedom of association," the report says – though it adds that there are still obstacles for organisations supporting LGBT rights.

Why Lebanon? I'm not sure it's due to a natural tolerance, more an enforced kind of tolerance which is partly the result of government paralysis and the political/sectarian stalemate where all elements recognise that none can permanently gain the upper hand.

Despite all the restrictions and the governmental backsliding, the number of associations is growing gradually in most of the countries surveyed, but the numbers are still well below European levels: