Statewatch
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Contacting Statewatch

Post: Statewatch, PO Box 1516, London N16 0EW, UK
Tel: (00 44) 208 802 1882
E-mail: office@statewatch.org
Requests for speakers should be sent to the above address or by e-mail - we will always reply, even if we cannot help

Statewatch is a non-profit-making voluntary group founded in 1991. It is comprised of lawyers, academics, journalists, researchers and community activists. Its European network of contributors is drawn from 15 countries. Statewatch encourages the publication of investigative journalism and critical research in Europe the fields of the state, justice and home affairs, civil liberties, accountability and openness. Brochure on Statewatch's work

One of Statewatch's 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 themsleves primary sources and come to their own conclusions.

Statewatch's services are very widely used:

-  the Statewatch website has over 130,000 unique visitors each month
-  7,700 people are signed up to the Statewatch e-mail list
-  the searchable Statewatch database contains over 25,000 stories, analyses and documents

 "Statewatch provides a tremendous service rooting out documents which most of us have no idea how to get hold of!" European Information Association

"We believe that, in general, Statewatch is a paradigm of sound scholarship." Foundation for Critical Thinking

The Statewatch bulletin was launched in 1991 and is now in its 13th year of publication. Coverage includes news, features and research sources on new measures introduced by national governments and the EU institutions in Brussels as well as reporting from the ground on the effect of policies and state practices in the community: Download a free sample issue of Statewatch bulletin

In 1997 the Statewatch European Monitoring and Documentation Centre (SEMDOC) was launched. SEMDOC has a unique collection documents from the Council of the European Union, the European Commission and the European Parliament on justice and home affairs and civil liberties. The SEMDOC website was launched in 1998 together with the Statewatch European Monitor.

 In June 2000 Statewatch News online was launched and carries news and features with extensive full-text background documentation to supplement coverage in the bulletin. On its website Statewatch maintains eighteen "Observatories" on civil liberties and openness in the EU on this site, further four "Observatories" on the SEMDOC site and a free, searchable database which holds 26,000 items including coverage from the bulletin: Search database. Together with News online they provide one of the most comprehensive resources available and are widely accessed right across Europe.

 In January 2001 the Statewatch subscriber website was launched which is accessible through an online subscription to bulletin subscribers - it carries the current bulletin in "pdf" format and a database of all coverage in the bulletin from 1991 to the current issue.

Since its launch this website has had 6,372,935 user sessions and 27,386,329 "hits" (April 2008)
In the year 2004 there were 625,653 user sessions with 2,791,124 "hits"
In the year 2005 there were 979,772 user sessions with 4,076,016 "hits"
In the year 2006 there were 1,341,158 user sessions with 5,446,221 "hits"
In the year 2007 there were 1,693,941 user sessions with 6,464,960 "hits"

 Statewatch has produced a number of publications on justice and home affairs in the EU, immigration, Europol, surveillance: Statewatch publications and has two unlimited access low-cost subscriber websites - SEMDOC and Statewatch online: Statewatch subscribers websites

Since 1997 Statewatch has submitted evidence to parliaments and other institutions on a range of issues: Index of submissions

Statewatch has received five Awards for its work:

1998 The Campaign for Freedom of Information gave Statewatch an Award for its work on fighting for EU openness (access to documents)

1999 Privacy International gave Statewatch an Award for its work in exposing the EU-FBI telecommunications surveillance plans

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

2001 European Voice newpaper, Brussels: Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, selected by a distinguished panel as one of the "EV50", one of the the fifty most influential people in the European Union over the year for Statewatch's work on access to documents in the EU

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"

 Statewatch networks with a whole range of other organisations and groups:

and is a member of:

Global Internet Liberty Campaign
INK, the independent news association
Freedom of Information Advocates Network - FOIANet
The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group - see Report

Statewatch is represented on:

The European Network on Peace and Human Rights
The International Commission on globalisation and human rights
Privacy International Advisory Board

Statewatch works with a number of partner groups including:

 

and has its own network of national correspondents in 17 European countries.

Statewatch is working with its partners - the American Civil Liberties Union and Privacy International - on a "policy-laundering project. See website:

The International Campaign Against Mass Surveillance (ICAMS) was launched on 20 April 2005. ICAMS was founded by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Focus on the Global South (Thailand), the Friends Committee on National Legislation (USA), the Independent Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (Canada) and Statewatch. See website:

European Civil Liberties Network

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Statewatch is registered under the Data Protection Act.

Statewatch is the research and education operation of a UK registered charity and is funded by UK grant-making trusts and donations. "Click" here: To support our work by making a donation online

© Statewatch ISSN 1756-851X. Personal usage as private individuals/"fair dealing" is allowed. We also welcome links to material on our site. Usage by those working for organisations is allowed only if the organisation holds an appropriate licence from the relevant reprographic rights organisation (eg: Copyright Licensing Agency in the UK) with such usage being subject to the terms and conditions of that licence and to local copyright law.