Gesellschaft fUr Freiheitsrechte e.V.
This organization has already been registered
Someone in your organization has already registered and setup an account. would you like to join their team?Profile owner : i**o@f*************e.o*g
Mission Statement
The GFF (Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte / Society for Civil Rights) is a Berlin-based non-profit NGO founded in 2015. Its mission is to establish a sustainable structure for successful strategic litigation in the area of human and civil rights in Germany and Europe. GFF’s initial cases will focus on protecting privacy, freedom of information and freedom of the press against state intrusion. These are the realms that GFF’s founders are most active in and that currently present both particularly critical challenges as well as litigation opportunities. GFF’s longer-term mission is to help protect and strengthen human and civil rights in general by legal means, thus permanently improving human and civil rights law all over Europe.
About This Cause
The GFF (Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte / Society for Civil Rights) is a Berlin-based non-profit NGO in the field of strategic litigation in the area of human and civil rights in Germany and Europe. German courts have developed a tradition of upholding civil rights against state intrusion, especially in the area of data protection. The Federal Constitutional Court has achieved an excellent reputation as a human rights court, and its jurisprudence resonates with other courts across Europe. With the added advantage of a relatively low cost of litigation, Germany is a great location for this mission. Our Strategy: Better Law Through Better Cases Strategic litigation is an indispensable instrument for the targeted enforcement of human and civil rights. While it has been successfully employed for decades by our US partner organizations, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, it is still hardly used in Germany. However, precedent also plays a crucial role with the German Federal Constitutional Court and the European courts. With its partners, GFF goes to court to protect human and civil rights in Germany and Europe. Three elements of our work are crucial for our success: - a long-term strategy for civil and human rights, - a careful selection of our cases in light of this strategy and the right plaintiffs. - a State that Breaks the Law Cannot Protect it GFF pursues strategic litigtion with a clear focus: We strengthen civil and human rights against state intrusion. For example, GFF defends the right to privacy, freedom of information and the freedom of the press against unjustified interference. To that end, it brings suitable plaintiffs in contact with excellent legal experts in order to jointly bring rights violations to court. At the same time, as an NGO, GFF is working to establish a durable structure in order to be able to also apply the instrument of strategic litigation to other rights, such as freedom from discrimination. „Big“ cases need to be carefully built—this requires the knowhow and expertise of specialized lawyers and clear criteria for selecting cases, plaintiffs and courts. Such cases need time and therefore also the type of long-term structures that GFF is establishing, building an office for litigation, public relations work and fundraising. GFF is the organization for substainably successful strategic litigation on civil rights in Germany. In order to be efficient and effective, to join know-how and forces, GFF works closely with a network of established NGOs, associations and activists. We bring together actors for human rights at the European level and work with especially experienced teams from the United States. Raising Awareness GFF is pioneering strategic litigation for civil rights in Germany. Therefore, it is part of our strategy to raise broad awareness for this topic. In the media, GFF promotes reporting that is correct on the facts and gives civil rights the center stage they deserve. This requires a close network and constructive engagement both with big media players and with specialized editorial offices and organizations such as Netzpolitik.org, Reporters Without Borders and Chaos Computer Club. Winning a case is an obvious factor for success. But risky cases, too, can carry opportunities for human and civil rights. Previous losses can be an important basis for later success in higher instances. Moreover, every case—whatever the outcome—is an opportunity to engage the public on human rights issues, to inform citizens via the media and to convince them of the importance of the issue. Even spectacular defeats for civil rights can lay the ground for progress, if they are accompanied by careful public relations work. Taking these factors into account, GFF strategically selects its cases, plaintiffs and partners and supports them through legal expertise and active, information oriented campaigning. This approach guarantees that the case not only addresses isolated legal issues, but that it has a sustainable effect for human and civil rights both at the legal and at the societal level. Litigating to Protect Rights: Our Cases GFF’s first cases focus on the protection of privacy, freedom of information and freedom of the press against state intrusion. We believe that in the digital era, everyone should be in control of their data and be able to determine what happens with them. This protection carries even greater weight where journalists and their sources, including whistleblowers, are concerned. It also concerns public-private cooperation in areas such as data preservation, the exchange of of airline passenger data, border protection and the regulation of financial transactions. An effective civil rights monitoring requires that everyone must be able to easily and effectively obtain information on how their data are used and processed. Governmental transparency and easy access to public documents and data are therefore of key importance. Finally, liberty requires equality; GFF is therefore committed to combating any form of discrimination against minorities such as handicapped people or asylum seekers and refugees. GFF’s first case is a constitutional complaint against the monitoring of data traffic and the warrantless spying on telecommunications between targets abroad by Germany’s foreign intelligence service. A separate constitutional complaint has been filed with Amnesty International against strategic mass surveillance in accordance with the so-called „G 10“ Act, which restricts the freedom of communication under Article 10 of the German Basic Law. Moreover, GFF has established a sustainable structure to support strategically relevant transparency law suits under the German Freedom of Information Act. Together with the German section of Reporters without Borders and other partners, GFF has filed a constitutional complaint against a new anti-whistleblower provision in the Criminal Code, which threatens investigative journalists and their supporting experts with prison sentences. (Click here for the German case description – English version to follow) Further cases are currently under preparation and will be published in due course.