Featured News
Petition: Let Liu Xiaobo or Family Attend Nobel Ceremony
Nov 24, 2010

As the day of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony draws near, Freedom House is circulating a petition that urges China to release imprisoned winner Liu Xiaobo to receive the award. Should the Chinese government refuses to do so, we appeal to them to at least allow his wife, Liu Xia, or another family member to travel to Oslo to accept the award on his behalf. Preventing the travel of citizens like Liu Xia under any circumstances is a gross violation of fundamental rights, but specifically banning travel to receive the Peace Prize award shows blatant disrespect for the universal values of peace and human rights. To sign the petition, click here.

Fact-Finding Mission to Liberia
Nov 22, 2010

Two Freedom House representatives recently traveled to Liberia on a fact-finding mission to examine the country's pre-electoral political environment and human rights situation after more than a decade of civil war. Director of Programs Robert Herman and Senior Program Officer Clara Cole met with NGOs, civil society leaders, and government officials in an attempt to determine Liberia's needs and how Freedom House could help ahead of the 2011 presidential elections.
 

The international community has praised Liberia for its peaceful elections in 2005 and other positive changes since the end of its violent civil war. Yet Herman and Cole point out that there is still much to be done to strengthen the country's democratic institutions, such as ensuring access to justice for those accused of crimes. The overstretched prison system is "symptomatic of a serious shortcoming in this nascent democracy," says Herman.

During their time in Liberia, Herman and Cole visited Monrovia Central Prison, where prisoners are so crowded into small cells that they must sleep in shifts. "In Liberia," says Herman, "the principal sphere of ongoing human rights violations is the absence of a functioning criminal justice system. People don't really have access to justice. The court system is overwhelmed; it doesn't work effectively. One consequence of that is people languishing in prisons either because they haven't had their day in court or because they were wrongly convicted." These aren't political prisoners, but individuals who are unable to receive a fair, speedy trial because the judicial system is so overtaxed.

Now that they are back in the United States, Freedom House hopes to secure the funding to design and implement programs to help civil society strengthen its role in the democratic political process and to become a "more effective voice and partner in terms of influencing government policy,"  Cole says.

Liberia is rated Partly Free in Freedom in the World 2010, Freedom House's survey of political rights and civil liberties, and Not Free in Freedom of the Press 2010.

For more information on Liberia, visit:
 
Freedom in the World 2010: Liberia
Freedom of the Press 2010: Liberia
 

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Seeking Justice for Sergei
Nov 18, 2010

Freedom House Executive Director David Kramer recently wrote in Foreign Policy, "Moscow's gross lack of justice and accountability one year after the death of Sergei Magnitsky is a call to action -- and Washington should honor its human rights rhetoric with firm sanctions." Currently, the Senate is considering the Justice for Sergei Magnitsky Act of 2010, which would block officials connected to Magnitsky's death from traveling to or investing in the United States.
 

On Nov. 16, the one-year anniversary of the murder of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, the documentary Justice for Sergei was screened at legislatures around the world. The film details Magnitsky's life--he blew the whistle on corruption, including the Russian police involvement with the embezzlement of public funds--and violent death. He was beaten to death while being held in police custody.
 

To learn more about Justice for Sergeiwatch the trailer.
 

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Press Releases
Recent Reports
Governance Blog

Are CP and ESC rights mutually exclusive?

November 24, 2010 -

Self-serving authoritarian distortions aside, the persistence of the idea that CP rights are only feasible or useful after ESC rights have been established suggests that a look at the broader relationship between economic development and CP rights is warranted.

In the News

Adding Insult to Murder

November 17, 2010 - Foreign Policy, by David J. Kramer

The Wrong Way to Combat 'Islamaphobia'

November 09, 2010 - International Herald Tribune, by Paula Schriefer

Fragile Progress, Rising Threats

November 04, 2010 - Harvard International Review, by Jake Dizard

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Freedom Alerts
Zimbabwean newspaper reporter Nqobani Ndlovu, who was arrested last week on criminal defamation charges, was granted bail this week. Yet the Zimbabwean government has blocked his release, keeping Ndlovu in custody.
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is currently facing a politically motivated trial that could lead to 20 years in prison and flogging.
The Chinese government has, for the first time, successfully forced the cancellation of this year's Chinese Blogger Conference, which was to have been held this past weekend in Shanghai.
Freedom House condemns a Kuwaiti court’s sentencing today of writer Abdulqader al-Jassem to one year in prison for an article that criticized Premier Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah.