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Annual activity report 2023

16 September 2024

Civil liberties in an era of crisis and turmoil

Read the full report here (pdf). You can find our full annual report and accounts on the website of the Charity Commission.

Civil liberties in an era of crisis and turmoil

“It has been said that history repeats itself. This is perhaps not quite correct; it merely rhymes,” the Austrian psychoanalyst Theodor Reik once wrote. At a time of growing support for parties and movements of the extreme right, and the adoption of their ideas by mainstream political parties; rising geopolitical tension between the world’s most powerful states; outright war and military conflict; flagrant racism and xenophobia; and growing economic inequality, it is sobering to think that the 2020s may rhyme with the 1920s.

It is in this context that European states, and “the west” more broadly, are seeking to define themselves in opposition to their geopolitical foes – primarily Russia and China. Both these countries have vastly different forms of government to those of European states, marked by a disturbing level of state control over both individual and collective activities, and brutal human rights violations. Nevertheless, events in Europe increasingly appear to suggest that the differences between the “old continent” and its current rivals are of degree, rather than kind. Europe has plenty of its own authoritarian tendencies, and these are increasingly coming to the surface.

The most obvious and longstanding example is that of Hungary, where the far-right Fidesz government has been in power for over a decade. But Italy is now governed by a coalition of the far-right, with a prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, whose political life began in neo-fascist movements. Meloni, in turn, apparently forged close links with former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak, whose governing programme was largely based on trying to appease the most right-wing elements of the Conservative Party. Meanwhile, in France and Germany – the EU’s two most powerful states – the far-right is increasingly popular with the electorate. Examples abound within and without the EU, across the European continent, and beyond.

Predictions for the European Parliament elections consistently show a substantial increase in support for parties explicitly opposed to universal rights and freedoms. At the same time, amongst EU institutions and member states there is a broad consensus that forging alliances with and funding authoritarian leaders abroad is a price worth paying to halt the arrival of unwanted migrants and refugees, a policy goal that is also seeing increasing restrictions on and repression of those defending migrant and refugee rights, and those saving lives in the Mediterranean and Aegean. The ongoing attempts to delegitimise protest movements – for racial justice, action against climate change, or in solidarity with Palestine – including by painting them as extremist or even terrorist, has made the political colours of many European governments increasingly clear.

The claims advanced by European governments that they are steadfast supporters of human rights, civil liberties and democratic standards – an idea often bundled up in the phrase “European values” – is starting to ring hollow to a growing number of people. It is likely to become increasingly so for as long as governments that claim to support those values continue to undermine them domestically, and through the influence they exert over the institutions of the EU and other supranational fora. In this context, the role of an independent, critical and contentious civil society, understood in the broadest possible sense – a civil society of associations, organisations, trade unions, campaign groups, journalists, lawyers, researchers and beyond – becomes more important than ever.

Throughout 2023 we continued to support that vision of civil society. Our core tasks of reporting, documentation and analysis – focusing on police powers, border controls, state secrecy, surveillance and security technologies – have supported campaigns and movements seeking to defend and extend the values and principles that are being actively undermined by governments across the continent.

We remain a widely-used and well-respected resource: our website received almost 170,000 visits over the course of the year, our work was cited in the press more than once per fortnight, and at least 18 other civil society organisations or initiatives have publicly cited our work. We were closely involved in projects and activities undertaken by our networks, and participated in a wide range of events that helped to disseminate our work and foster the development of new ideas and projects. Our staff, trustees and contributors can be immensely proud of what we have achieved in 2023, and we are grateful to all those who supported our work, financially or otherwise.

Nevertheless, there remains much that we can do to improve, both with regard to the work we produce, and how we produce it. Some of those improvements began in 2023: at the end of the year, we employed our first ever member of staff to work on solely on communications, which in 2024 will change the way our work is publicly presented. This will help us to disseminate the findings of our research and reporting in clearer and more accessible ways, broadening our audience and aiding their understanding of our work.

We still have much to do in terms of working more closely within our networks and with organisations and associations of people at the sharp end of state power to gain a better understanding of what it is they want and need from our work. This will require increased coordination and cooperation across groups and countries, and will require us taking more time to explore topics and ideas before diving into research and writing. The increased income we have enjoyed in 2023, which we aim to see continue in 2024 and beyond, will help us with this. This will also make it possible for us to achieve the more mundane, but crucial, objective of increasing staff remuneration and conditions to a level that ensures we can recruit and retain people over the long-term – something we have made substantial progress with in recent years, but on which we still have much to do.

Ultimately, we also need to gain a better understanding of how civil society can work together in an increasingly repressive political environment to defend and, in the longer-term, extend the rights and freedoms that everyone in society should be able to exercise and enjoy. Our part in that struggle is to conduct research and investigations into policies and practices that undermine those rights and freedoms, and to oppose them through campaigning and advocacy alongside others. In the years to come, we will build on our existing knowledge, connections and practices to do that work even more effectively.

Chris Jones
Executive Director
May 2024

This is a truncated version of our annual report and accounts, which are available here.