Freedom Forward seeks an end to U.S. support for dictators, kings, and nondemocratic governments. We envision a world in which U.S. foreign policy is fully aligned with the hopes and aspirations of people who desire freedom.
For too long, U.S. foreign policy has directly contradicted U.S. government rhetoric. While U.S. officials talk about freedom, the U.S. government maintains alliances with other governments that brutalize critics and silence dissent at home.
Freedom Forward combines research, advocacy, and solidarity-based activism to achieve both changes in U.S. foreign policy and expanded freedom in societies that struggle under repressive U.S.-backed governments. While our campaigns primarily focus on the U.S. government, we also build direct civil society pressure on repressive governments that are backed by the U.S., as well as on the private entities that enable or profit from such repression. We seek a culture shift in the discourse of U.S. foreign policy, and we engage other organizations in pursuit of this.
In the words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government” as “expressed in periodic and genuine elections.” We oppose U.S. military and diplomatic support to governments that violate this principle. Our human rights agenda includes advocacy for the right to vote, as well as the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of association, and freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. We believe that the principles of government transparency and accountability are critical to the protection of these human rights.
Freedom Forward endorses the human rights articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. We specifically focus our efforts on defending the civil and political rights enumerated in these documents, as well as the right of workers to form unions. Far too many U.S.-backed governments violate these fundamental freedoms.
Through our focus on stopping U.S. support for repressive governments, we aspire to help build a world in which every person lives free of physical violence, coercion, structural violence, and institutional discrimination. All people should live in political systems that foster liberty, justice, equity, access to opportunity, and fundamental dignity.
Freedom Forward also stands in solidarity with communities inside the U.S. that struggle against racism, poverty, and domestic repression. While many U.S. citizens and residents live with the benefit of constitutionally protected freedoms, the promise of those written freedoms often remains unfulfilled. We note that the same companies that profit from U.S. relationships with repressive governments often simultaneously participate in the expansion of repressive systems inside the U.S., including prison systems, government surveillance, and militarized law enforcement.
In too many places, U.S. foreign policy provides military and diplomatic support to governments that crush hope. U.S. citizens and taxpayers deserve better. When people around the world seek freedom from dictatorship and occupation, our own government should not be investing in the wrong side.
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