Organisations working to protect people from corporate abuses have lost an average of 40% of their funding in just two years, according to a new global survey, with one in eight warning they could be forced to close.
The findings, published on Wednesday, 16 September, come from a survey by Swedish human rights organisation Swedwatch, the European Coalition for Corporate Justice and the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.
Some 93 organisations across 40 countries responded to the survey, including 87 civil society groups. It found average funding had fallen by 40% between 2024 and 2026, while 13% of respondents said they could shut down altogether if current trends continue.
Groups based in the Global South have been hit particularly hard, reporting average cuts of 49%, compared with 28% for organisations in the Global North.
More than 450 full-time jobs among the participating civil society organisations have already disappeared or are expected to be lost from 2027 onwards, while two-thirds of respondents said they had reduced staffing.
The financial squeeze comes as human rights defenders are also facing increasing intimidation. Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed reported physical, legal or reputational attacks connected with their work, while a third had received threats and 13% reported physical violence.
Ben Claeson of Swedwatch said the findings were particularly worrying as governments introduce laws requiring companies to identify and address human rights and environmental abuses within their supply chains.
“At the very moment when governments are increasingly introducing mandatory due diligence laws... the organisations needed to make those laws meaningful for impacted workers and communities are losing the resources they depend on,” he said.
The findings form part of a broader contraction in human rights funding. Swedwatch has previously cited estimates from the Human Rights Funders Network suggesting official development assistance for human rights could fall by as much as $1.9 billion in 2026 compared with 2023.
Türkiye under scrutiny
It’s not clear if any organisations from Türkiye formed part of the survey, however current events in the country bear out its findings and the immense pressure some civil society organisations are under.
The challenges Turkish human rights groups face has been thrown into sharp focus by the nationwide operation launched against LGBT organisations and activists at the weekend. According to local reports, dozens of people have been detained as part of the operation. Separately, legal proceedings are underway to permanently close two LGBT rights organisations in Mersin.
On Wednesday, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe General Rapporteur on LGBTI rights, British Labour MP Kate Osborne, issued an unequivocal condemnation of the “harassment, intimidation, censorship, raids and mass arrests”. She said criminalising the promotion and protection of LGBT rights breaches Council of Europe equality and non-discrimination standards and has called for the immediate release of anyone detained for defending LGBT rights.
Earlier this week, Council of Europe (CoE) Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty also expressed concern over arrests, raids and the blocking of websites and social media accounts targeting LGBT civil society.
PACE General Rapporteur on LGBTI rights, British MP Kate Osborne
According to the CoE Commissioner, Türkiye’s Justice Minister said the investigation covered 162 individuals, nine associations and 13 businesses across 15 provinces, and included investigations into funding received by LGBT organisations from foreign and public sources.
O’Flaherty stressed that the receipt of lawful funding should not in itself provide grounds for criminal investigations or detention.
The EU and Council of Europe continue to provide grants to Turkish civil society, including a current €2.96 million programme designed to strengthen organisations working on migration, environmental justice and access to human rights remedies.
Azerbaijan: longstanding barriers to foreign funding tighten further
The operating environment is more restrictive in Azerbaijan, where human rights groups have long faced substantial obstacles in accessing overseas funding.
Human Rights Watch says amendments approved in August 2025 introduced further controls requiring NGOs to obtain prior official approval for service contracts and other forms of external financial support, with fines for breaches. It also reported criminal investigations against NGO leaders during 2025 for alleged “illegal entrepreneurship” and tax offences.
A Council of Europe assessment has similarly found that access to foreign funding has been seriously restricted since changes to Azerbaijan's NGO laws in 2014, forcing some organisations to become self-financing or move away from politically sensitive work such as human rights, media freedom and corruption. It said foreign funding, historically a major source of income for Azerbaijani NGOs, had become “almost impossible” for many groups to obtain.
Amnesty International said in July that Azerbaijan's independent civil society had been progressively weakened through restrictive legislation, prosecutions and the imprisonment or exile of activists and human rights defenders.
Swedwatch and its partners argue that the combination of shrinking funds and growing restrictions risks leaving workers and communities with fewer organisations able to document abuses, pursue remedies and hold companies and governments to account.
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