2018 was the thirteenth consecutive year in which states with negative democratic development outnumbered those with positive democratic development. The international CIVICUS network classifies the space for civil society in all UN member states in categories ranging from closed to open. Their April 2017 compilation shows that only three percent of the world's population live in what can be considered open societies for civil society organizations. Around 44 percent live in states where civic space is either completely closed or subjected to severe restrictions. Actors in civil society face increasing social, financial and legal restrictions as well as threats against themselves and their families and even physical violence. Restrictions and attacks on civil society have detrimental consequences for women's rights and SRHR, including LGBTIQ activists who already face structural discrimination and often depend on civil society as the only sphere where they can express themselves and organize. Increasing religious fundamentalism and the close ties and frequent interaction between religious institutions and the state means that women's reproductive rights are under constant attack. In this study we look more closely at the situation for SRHR including LGBTIQ activists with help from interviewees in partner organizations of RFSU around the world. We asked them about the obstacles they experience in their work to advance SRHR rights; their strategies to get the work done in difficult circumstances; and what they consider to be the factors that enable them to do their work.[-]