A/HRC/35/28 C. Civil society’s achievements 36. A report of this size and scope cannot do justice to the accomplishments and immense positive contribution that civil society makes every day throughout the world. The Special Rapporteur has therefore chosen to highlight contributions in a few areas where he considers that civil society has excelled in advancing democracy, development and peace. The themes he has selected draw out some of civil society’s innate strengths as an aggregator of voices and a counterweight to State and private sector power. The examples provided demonstrate that civil society is a constituency that should not be ignored, undermined or undervalued by States. 37. The examples provided by the Special Rapporteur are primarily drawn from his experiences during his term as mandate holder and suggestions from respondents to the questionnaires and from people who participated in the consultations held when preparing this report. 1. Pursuing accountability 38. Civil society’s possibly most recognizable role involves ensuring accountability: promoting the rule of law, holding governments and businesses accountable, establishing limits to the abuse of power, transforming power relationships and demanding redress. It is also the role that most often draws ire from governments and the private sector alike. Accountability is an area where civil society has leveraged its capacity to act as a counterbalance while also taking advantage of cooperative strategies. Civil society plays an indispensable role in establishing or maintaining democracy by subjecting power to checks and balances, amplifying the plurality of voices and views and calling out State and nonState actors on failures to meet their obligations. 39. Civil society groups of different kinds seize the initiative to resist, alter or shape power relationships in their communities or countries at large. The starkest recent examples include an array of mass protest movements, such as the Black Lives Matter movement and the pro-democracy movements in North Africa, the Middle East and Ukraine. In Brazil, Guatemala, Iceland and the Republic of Korea, the population’s demands for accountability led to changes in leadership. In Poland and Turkey, mass demonstrations led to the withdrawal of unpopular draft laws banning abortions and legitimizing sexual abuse, respectively. Human rights defenders and activists and development practitioners also participate in peacebuilding and conflict resolution work throughout the world. 40. Taking on the role of countering the unchecked power of State or market actors is often perceived by governments as political opposition, even when civil society groups do not seek political power for themselves. In Zambia, the Civic Forum on Housing and Habitat Zambia, an outspoken advocate for the rights of marginalized groups to land and housing, has been labelled as part of the political opposition because of its criticism of government policies. Among other things, the Forum has succeeded in raising the profile of housing concerns with the Government, resisted the arbitrary eviction of communities and mobilized grass-roots communities to participate in the revision of the housing policy. 20 41. Civil society groups play a crucial role in preventing conflict and mass human rights violations, as well as in the aftermath of these events. In his report to the Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence has highlighted the contribution made by civil society, including trade unions in Poland, South Africa and Tunisia, religious institutions in Burundi, Chile and Uruguay and NGOs and victims’ organizations in Argentina,21 Chile 20 21 10 Contribution from Civic Forum on Housing and Habitat (Zambia). Contribution from the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales: civil society organizations have played a crucial role in transitional justice, including in Argentina, where organizations such as the Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos, the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales and the Madres de Plaza de Mayo contributed to shedding light on and fighting against impunity relating to human rights violations that occurred during the military dictatorship in the 1970s.