'Colour revolutions' are arguably the leitmotif of right-wing populist leaders when justifying domestic legislation introduced to curtail or eradicate civil society from domestic arenas—'the closing space of civil society'. In the West, these revolutions are perceived as non-violent, initiated, and led by local civil society. Contrary to this, populist leaders define them as foreign-funded changes of legitimate governments. Their narratives frame civil society (conducting revolutions) as foreign, elite, and working against the will of the people. International law is not a neutral bystander but an active participant in these processes. The international community relies on the right to freedom of association to defend space for civil society and populists on the principle of non-intervention to protect their sovereignty. These uses and consequential effects on international law reveal the idea of civil society lying behind the rules. This article argues that international law is constituted by and constitutive of a particular idea of civil society imagined as a free space, a third sector, and primarily composed of NGOs. This idea plays into the populist narrative of a foreign, elite civil society working against the will of the people with the aim of forging change of legitimate governments.
