Statewatch

Statewatch   (NGO)
Formation	1991
Headquarters	London, UK
Interests	Civil liberties
Sponsored by	Open Society Foundations
Membership	•  Tony Bunyan •  Chris Jones •  Jonathan Bloch •  Jane Kilpatrick •  Yasha Maccanico •  Victoria Canning •  Nadine Finch •  Fiona Godfrey •  Lilana Keith •  Ann Singleton
Civil rights group

Statewatch is a British civil rights movement founded in 1991 and based in London. It monitors the government and compliance with civil rights within the European Union.

Origins

The group describes itself as "a non-profit-making voluntary group founded in 1991. It is comprised of lawyers, academics, journalists, researchers and community activists. Its European network of contributors is drawn from 18 countries. Statewatch encourages the publication of investigative journalism and critical research in Europe the fields of the state, justice and home affairs, civil liberties, accountability and openness."

In 2005, Statewatch initiated the founding of the European Civil Liberties Network.

Objectives

• To monitor civil liberties and the state in Europe, in particular the European Union, its member states and the UK;
• To inform and empower individuals and civil society;
• Action on civil liberties and justice and home affairs issues.

The group declares "One of our primary purposes is to provide a service for civil society to encourage informed discussion and debate - through the provision of news, features and analyses backed up by full-text documentation so that people can access for themselves primary sources and come to their own conclusions."

Donors

The group has received money from the always suspicious Open Society Foundations; the Garden Court Chambers and Citizens for Europe.

Activities

Statewatch is particularly known for initiating discussions by publishing internal government documents, such as

• Documents relating to negotiations on a security agreement between the US and European governments
• The draft for a framework decision on data retention,
• Bills by the EU Commission on the storage of flight passenger data and an agreement with the USA on
• Great Britain's application to the EU Council to expand flight data collection,
• A draft of the EU Commission to restrict the freedom of information,
• The report "Freedom, Security, Privacy" of the Informal High Level Advisory Group on the Future of European Home Affairs Policy ("Future Group") from June 2008,
• The 2014–2020 work program of the European Network of Law Enforcement Technology Service, in which the project of a remote-controlled stopping device for motor vehicles was discussed.

Statewatch representatives are regularly questioned and quoted by other media on issues of data protection and state surveillance, for example:

• For the EU-wide networking of national DNA and fingerprint databases
• on freedom of information,
• On European counter-terrorism measures,
• For data retention of telephone data,
• On biometric passports,
• On the Schengen Information System,
• To block websites that call for terrorism,
• For the USA to access the data of travelers
• For the automated evaluation of surveillance images
• On the use of drones in agriculture and border protection.

 

Sponsor

Event	Description
Open Society Foundations	A NGO operating in more countries than McDonald's. It has the tendency to support politicians (at times through astroturfing) and activists that get branded as "extreme left" as its founder is billionaire and bane of the pound George Soros. This polarizing perspective causes the abnormal influence of the OSF to go somewhat unanswered.

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