European Civil Liberties Network (ECLN) Launched
defend liberties | 02.11.2005 10:18 | Migration | Repression | Social Struggles | London
A couple of weeks ago (Oct 19th) saw the launch of the European Civil Liberties Network (or "ECLN")
The network 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.
To mark the launch of the group, an online collection of 16 essays on civil liberties has been published - with topics including the 'war on terror', EU border controls, denial of children's rights, ASBOs, public corruption, globalisation, and deportations.
To read the essays and find out more check out
http://www.ecln.org
http://www.ecln.org/essays.html
The network 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.
To mark the launch of the group, an online collection of 16 essays on civil liberties has been published - with topics including the 'war on terror', EU border controls, denial of children's rights, ASBOs, public corruption, globalisation, and deportations.
To read the essays and find out more check out
http://www.ecln.org http://www.ecln.org/essays.html
The new website features events and research news, a noticeboard, alerts mailing list and newsfeed.
Launch statement:
Civil liberties and democracy are under attack as never before and the need for a collective response to counter these threats has never been greater.
We share common objectives of seeking to create a European society based on freedom and equality, of fundamental civil liberties and personal and political freedoms, of free movement and freedom of information, and equal rights for minorities. This entails defending, extending and deepening the democratic culture - a concept not limited to political parties and elections but embracing wider values of pluralism, diversity and tolerance. And we share too a common opposition to racism, fascism, sexism and homophobia.
The defence of civil liberties and democracy also requires that positive demands are placed on the agenda. For example, respect and rights for all people, cultures and their histories, for the presumption of innocence and freedom from surveillance and the freedom to protest and demonstrate.
To these ends the European Civil Liberties Network (ECLN) has been established.
There are many groups across Europe working on associated issues, such as, legal rights, human rights, refugee and migrants' rights, globalisation and peace. The ECLN seeks to work with, and complement, these groups by concentrating its efforts on civil liberties, freedom of information and democracy at the European level.
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The ECLN is an iniative of the following founding groups
Statewatch (based in London, founded in 1990)
European Race Audit (part of the Institute of Race Relations, based in London, founded in 1956).
CILIP (covers civil liberties and policing and is based at the Free University of Berlin, founded in 1975).
Mugak (covering immigration, racism and xenophobia, based in the Basque country in Spain).
Komitee gegen Schnueffelstaat (works on democracy and civil liberties, based in Bern, Switzerland).
Hellenic League for Human Rights (founded in 1953, Greece).
Access to Information Programme (Sofia, launched in 1996 by journalists, lawyers and academics working on human rights issues).
VD AMOK (an anti-militarist and conscientious objectors organization that works closely together with the peace movement).
Komitee für Grundrechte und Demokratie (Committee for fundamental rights and democracy, Germany)
Founding individuals
The founding individuals are: Thomas Mathiesen, Professor Sociology of Law, Oslo, Norway; Liz Fekete, IRR European Race Audit, Mads Pedersen, co-editor "Salt", Copenhagen, Aidan White, Secretary-General European Federation of Journalists, Brussels, Professor Wolf Dieter-Narr, Berlin, Gareth Peirce, lawyer, London, Heiner Busch, CILIP, Berlin, Germany, Lorenzo Trucco, Turin, Italy, Deirdre Curtin, Professor and Chair of School of Governance, University of Utrecht, Netherlands, Tony Bunyan, director Statewatch, Professor Steve Peers, University of Essex, UK, Ann Singleton, University of Bristol, Gus Hosein, Privacy International, A.Sivanandan, Director of the Institute of Race Relations, Helmut Dietrich, Forschungsgesellschaft Flucht und Migration - FFM, Berlin, Paddy Hillyard, Professor, Queens University, Belfast.
Launch statement:
Civil liberties and democracy are under attack as never before and the need for a collective response to counter these threats has never been greater.
We share common objectives of seeking to create a European society based on freedom and equality, of fundamental civil liberties and personal and political freedoms, of free movement and freedom of information, and equal rights for minorities. This entails defending, extending and deepening the democratic culture - a concept not limited to political parties and elections but embracing wider values of pluralism, diversity and tolerance. And we share too a common opposition to racism, fascism, sexism and homophobia.
The defence of civil liberties and democracy also requires that positive demands are placed on the agenda. For example, respect and rights for all people, cultures and their histories, for the presumption of innocence and freedom from surveillance and the freedom to protest and demonstrate.
To these ends the European Civil Liberties Network (ECLN) has been established.
There are many groups across Europe working on associated issues, such as, legal rights, human rights, refugee and migrants' rights, globalisation and peace. The ECLN seeks to work with, and complement, these groups by concentrating its efforts on civil liberties, freedom of information and democracy at the European level.
--------
The ECLN is an iniative of the following founding groups
Statewatch (based in London, founded in 1990)
European Race Audit (part of the Institute of Race Relations, based in London, founded in 1956).
CILIP (covers civil liberties and policing and is based at the Free University of Berlin, founded in 1975).
Mugak (covering immigration, racism and xenophobia, based in the Basque country in Spain).
Komitee gegen Schnueffelstaat (works on democracy and civil liberties, based in Bern, Switzerland).
Hellenic League for Human Rights (founded in 1953, Greece).
Access to Information Programme (Sofia, launched in 1996 by journalists, lawyers and academics working on human rights issues).
VD AMOK (an anti-militarist and conscientious objectors organization that works closely together with the peace movement).
Komitee für Grundrechte und Demokratie (Committee for fundamental rights and democracy, Germany)
Founding individuals
The founding individuals are: Thomas Mathiesen, Professor Sociology of Law, Oslo, Norway; Liz Fekete, IRR European Race Audit, Mads Pedersen, co-editor "Salt", Copenhagen, Aidan White, Secretary-General European Federation of Journalists, Brussels, Professor Wolf Dieter-Narr, Berlin, Gareth Peirce, lawyer, London, Heiner Busch, CILIP, Berlin, Germany, Lorenzo Trucco, Turin, Italy, Deirdre Curtin, Professor and Chair of School of Governance, University of Utrecht, Netherlands, Tony Bunyan, director Statewatch, Professor Steve Peers, University of Essex, UK, Ann Singleton, University of Bristol, Gus Hosein, Privacy International, A.Sivanandan, Director of the Institute of Race Relations, Helmut Dietrich, Forschungsgesellschaft Flucht und Migration - FFM, Berlin, Paddy Hillyard, Professor, Queens University, Belfast.
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Comments
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Why is organising on a “Europe-wide” basis such a bad idea?
02.11.2005 13:34
At various meetings arranged to help mobilise against the G8 summit, the idea of creating European Networks has been presented. Whether simply against repression or of a more general nature, the idea has been proposed more than once. There is also a separate idea that those involved in facilitating the well-being of protestors during the G8 conference should consider ways of developing the relationships that such work must involve for future activities. We would like to separate these ideas. As the European Union grows in power, Pan-European internationalism will create more problems than it solves. Whereas some may see “European-wide” links as being a healthy way of breaking out of the limits of the nation, for us the real key to internationalism lies in its universalism. We suggest that the abandonment of “Europe-wide” organising is necessary to allow a more egalitarian way of organising which does not privilege the “European”, whether understood in terms of culture, race or region.
It is precisely this three-fold ambiguity in the sense of the word “European” that gives it such a volatile ideological value. It can be understood by different people in different ways. Those that understand it terms of region, perforce must adopt the sort of territorialism which is characteristic of the state, in this case the emerging European Union. Another conception is racial, which originated in the consolidation of a White social elite in European colonies outside Europe. The third associates the highest level of human achievement with the history of Europe from the days of ancient Greece to today.
Europe-wide organising has a reactionary effect by:
Encouraging a European identity as something separate from humanity in general by privileging European connectedness.
Discouraging the participation of people from non-European diasporas living in Europe by discriminating against their social, cultural and political connections with places outside Europe
Obstructing a critical appraisal of Eurocentrism, institutional racism and White Supremacy by adopting a structure which facilitates all three.
"Globalisation" has highlighted our increasing need to develop counter-strategies at a global level. For this to succeed we need to ensure that an organisational practice that embraces the whole of humanity, rather than allowing a method of organisation which asserts the autonomy of one of the richest parts of the world which has a track record of spreading destruction, exploitation and brutality across the world since the inception of capitalism in the sixteenth century C.E.
17th May 2005 West Essex Zapatista
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Why is organising on a “Europe-wide” basis such a bad idea?
European Civil Liberties thing
05.11.2005 01:41
Only thing is, there are already several similar organisations that have existed for a long time, not least the European Network for Peace and Human Rights.
Why is it particularly necessary to replicate the existing coalitions/organisations.
Interested onlooker