An online network of groups concerned with civil liberties, democracy and equality has been launched to counter unprecedented attacks on freedoms in Europe.
The European Civil Liberties Network (ECLN) brings together groups and individuals who seek to create a European society based on freedom and equality, personal and political freedom, freedom of information and equality rights for minorities. And to mark the launch of the group, which has been co-ordinated by Tony Bunyan, director of the British-based Statewatch, an online collection of essays has been published.
The Essays in Defence of Civil Liberties (which will be added to) currently contains contributions on the ‘war on terror’, EU border controls, denial of children’s rights, ASBOs, public corruption, globalisation, ‘speech crime’ and deportation. A.Sivanandan and Liz Fekete, authors of the latter two pieces, are founding members of ECLN, as are other leading human rights figures such as Gareth Peirce.
The founding groups behind ECLN include:
- Statewatch (London)
- IRR’s European Race Audit (London)
- CILIP (Berlin)
- Mugak (Spanish Basque country)
- Komitee gegen Schnuefelstaat (Bern)
- Hellenic League for Human Rights (Greece)
- Access to Information Programme (Sofia)
- VD AMOK
- Komitee fur Grundrechte und Demokratie (Germany).
The ECLN website includes details of new research, campaigns, conferences and demonstrations, a searchable database, an automated email ‘alerts’ system as well as background information on the network.