Statewatch is a non-profit organization founded in 1991 that monitors the state, justice and home affairs, security and civil liberties in the European Union. It is composed of lawyers, academics, journalists, researchers and community activists. Its European network of contributors is drawn from 18 countries and partners such as CILIP, Drone Campaign Network, EDRi, FOIAdvocates, JUSTICIA European Rights Network and Migreurop. Statewatch encourages the publication of investigative journalism and critical research in Europe in the fields of the state, justice and home affairs, civil liberties, accountability and openness. The organization has three free databases: a large database of all its news, articles and links since 1991, the Statewatch European Monitoring and Documentation Centre which monitors all new justice and home affairs measures since 1993. The predecessor to Statewatch was "State Research", which produced a bi-monthly bulletin and carried research. The organization and its director, Tony Bunyan, have received awards for their civil rights activism including a 1998 award from the British Campaign for Freedom of Information and the 2011 "Long Walk" award at the Liberty's Human Rights Awards.
Vision
European Union of freedom, democracy and diversity, a society of fundamental civil liberties and personal and political rights, free movement and freedom of information, and equal rights for all.
Objectives
To monitor civil liberties and the state in the European Union;
To inform and empower individuals and civil society in order to ensure a European Union based on civil liberties, human rights and democracy;
Action on civil liberties and justice and home affairs issues.
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.
Main activities
: Launched in 1999 and updated regularly, Statewatch News has articles, reports, documentation and analyses on civil liberties, EU policies and state practices. Made up of our own work and key material from other sources, on average 50 articles are published weekly.
: We engage in research projects investigating key civil liberties issues and finding ways to resolve them: the EU Justicia Network, observing EU standards on procedural rights and rights of victims of crime; the SECILE project, gathering and analysing all the EU's adopted counter-terrorism measures since 2001; media analysis of asylum and refugee stories for the Ethical Journalism Network; examining the transparency and accountability of EU agencies; investigating the growth and development of biometric identity initiatives in the EU.
: Our Observatories document the development of specific and thematic issues, from freedom of information to asylum and immigration. They bring together draft policies and adopted legislation, analyses from civil society, media reports, critiques and campaigns.
: The Statewatch European Monitoring and Documentation Centre tracks every measure, proposed and adopted, in the field of EU justice and home affairs policy since 1993. It contains a legislative observatory of past, current and future JHA measures.
: The JHA Archive is a unique online collection of over 9,000 official EU documents charting the development of EU justice and home affairs policy.
Mailing list and social media: In addition to thousands of followers on and , we currently have more than 10,000 people signed up to receive email alerts.
: Our archive has been gathered over 40 years and holds unique materials from national and local activism in pamphlet format, from Roneo to lithographic publications, plus badges alongside key books ranging from the 1920s onwards and many hard copy EU documents which predate the EU’s digitisation of its records.
: All the material we have published since 1991, including Statewatch News, the Statewatch Bulletin/Journal & the State Research archive alongside official reports and documentation, analyses, links and more. We currently have over 35,000 items.
2011: awards Statewatch the human rights "Long Walk" Award: "For dedication to openness, democracy and informed debate about European institutions, keeping us reliably informed and suitably engaged for the last 20 years. Their network of independent volunteers has become one of the most respected and reliable sources of investigative journalism and critical research in the fields of the state, justice, home affairs and civil liberties in the European Union."
2004: European Voice newspaper, Brussels: Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, selected by a distinguished panel as one of the "EV50", one of the fifty most influential people in the European Union over the year for Statewatch's work on civil liberties and the "war on terrorism"
2001: European Voice newspaper, Brussels: Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, selected by a distinguished panel as one of the "EV50", one of the fifty most influential people in the European Union over the year for Statewatch's work on access to documents in the EU
2001: The European Information Association gave Statewatch the "Chadwyck-Healey Award for achievement in European Information" for its work on openness and the new code of access to EU documents
1999: gave Statewatch an award for its work in exposing EU-FBI telecommunications surveillance plans
1998: The Campaign for Freedom of Information gave Statewatch an Award for its work on fighting for EU openness
