The creation of a hostile environment and the introduction of restrictions on the activities of non-governmental organizations and individuals who react critically to violations of human rights, abuses of power and the assertion of particular political and corporate interests instead of the public interest is a phenomenon that researchers observe in many European countries and is also increasing in Slovenia. The targets of hostile rhetoric and restrictions are especially organizations and individuals working in the fields of human rights protection, migration studies and defense of refugee and immigrant rights, nature and environment protection, LGBTI rights, gender equality, fight against discrimination, defense of labor rights, etc.

In the review of the findings of the monitoring of the mentioned cases, we use the term "attacks", which denotes various forms of systemic, verbal and other attacks on non-governmental organizations and other critical actors in civil society, including various forms of threats, pressures, attempts and implementation of systemic, legal, financial , spatial and other restrictions and disablements of operation.