Freedom House: A History

Freedom House was established in 1941 in New York City.  It emerged from an amalgamation of two groups  that had been formed, with the quiet encouragement of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to encourage popular support for American involvement in World War II at a time when isolationist sentiments were running high in the United States. 

Eleanor Roosevelt, honorary chairman of Freedom House, at the Freedom Award dinner honoring Dwight Eisenhower.

From the outset, Freedom House was notable for its bipartisan character.  In its early years, its board of trustees was drawn from a broad and eclectic group of prominent Americans: leaders from business and labor, journalists, academics, former government officials.  A key figure among its early leaders was Wendell Willkie, the Republican presidential nominee in 1940.  Eleanor Roosevelt was also a strong supporter and served as honorary chairman in the organization's early years.  

Having been launched in response to the threat posed by one great totalitarian evil, Nazism, Freedom House took up the struggle against the other twentieth century totalitarian threat, Communism, after the conclusion of World War II.  The organization's leadership was convinced that the spread of democracy would be the best weapon against totalitarian ideologies.  Freedom House thus embraced a mission to work to expand freedom around the world and to strengthen human rights and civil liberties in the United States.  Freedom House thus strongly endorsed the post-war Atlantic Alliance, as well as such key policies and institutions as the Marshall Plan and NATO.

During the 1950s, Freedom House was an aggressive foe of McCarthyism.  It was also an early supporter of the movement for racial equality.  Through the years, Freedom House has included among its leadership prominent civil rights leaders, most notably Roy Wilkins, the director of the NAACP, and Bayard Rustin, a leading adviser to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

During the 1970s, Freedom House became concerned about the erosion of freedom in many parts of the developing world.  With Marxist regimes, juntas, and military strongmen holding sway over swathes of Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, Freedom House responded with a program that combined research and analysis, advocacy, and on-the-ground involvement in crisis areas. 

Just prior to America’s entry into World War II, the organization which was to merge to form Freedom House – Fight for Freedom – announces a major rally in Times Square, NYC.

In 1973, Freedom House launched its annual survey of global political rights and civil liberties, Freedom in the World.  Employing a methodology that had been devised by leading social scientists, the survey rated every country in the world  on a series of indicators basic to freedom.  Published annually,  it  provided policymakers, journalists, and the public a comparative view of the global state of freedom, in which countries were measures across regional boundaries and  from year to year. 

Also in that time period, Freedom House took the leading role in a campaign to  defeat a proposal, under debate in the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), to establish a New World Information and Communications Order, a measure that many saw as an opening wedge towards global censorship.  The organization was involved in the defense of Andrei Sakharov and other Soviet dissidents.  When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, Freedom House established the Afghanistan Information Center, a clearinghouse for information on the conflict.  It was among the earliest supporters of Poland's Solidarity trade union. Responding to growing strife in Africa, Freedom House sent study missions to Zimbabwe and South Africa led by Bayard Rustin.  It also sent missions to assess conditions in Central America during the 1980s, as part of an ongoing project to support centrist democratic forces, under siege from the Marxist left and the death squad right. 

With the end of the Cold War, the Freedom House mission evolved to meet the new challenge of expanding freedom to societies under dictatorship and helping to stabilize free institutions in new, fragile democracies.   Freedom House became more active on the issue of religious freedom.  In 1995, the Puebla Institute was merged into Freedom House as the Center for Religious Freedom, and led advocacy efforts to bring issues of religious freedom into the mainstream of human rights work.   The 1997 merger with the National Forum Foundation substantially enhanced Freedom House's capacity to conduct on-the-ground projects in fledgling democracies in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and the former Soviet Union.   Through subgrants and targeted fellowships, Freedom House assisted these post-Communist societies in the establishment of independent media, non-governmental think tanks, and the core institutions of electoral politics.  Although the Center for Religious Freedom separated from Freedom House in 2006, Freedom House continues to ensure that religious freedom remains a core part of its analysis, advocacy, and action portfolio.

In the post 9/11 period, Freedom House expanded its on-the-ground presence to more difficult environments, such as in Central Asia and the Middle East.  Since 2001, Freedom House has established an increasingly global presence through offices in Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Bosnia, Serbia, Jordan, Mexico, and a number of countries in Central Asia. In both Ukraine and Serbia, Freedom House worked closely with local groups that were responsible for peaceful democratic revolutions.  In Jordan, Freedom House worked to stem violence against women; in Algeria, it  sought justice for victims of torture; in Uzbekistan, a brutal dictatorship, it sought to defend human rights advocates; in Venezuela, it worked with those seeking to protect and promote human rights in a difficult political environment.

Bette Bao Lord, chair of Freedom House, addresses a Tibet freedom rally across from the United Nations, in New York.

Freedom House has also substantially expanded its research on various aspects of freedom.  Its flagship survey, Freedom in the World, was chosen as a formal source for the determination of country eligibility for the Millennium Challenge Account, a new foreign assistance program designed to provide additional aid to poor countries that achieve certain democratic standards and adopt free market economic reforms.  In addition, Freedom House publishes annually Freedom of the Press (established in 1980); Nations in Transit (since 1995), which assesses conditions in the post Communist world; and Countries at the Crossroads, a survey of governance, corruption, and transparency in sixty important countries.  In 2005, Freedom House published two path-breaking studies.  The first, Survey of Women's Rights in the Middle East and North Africa, identified and analyzed the institutions that contribute to gender inequality in the region.  The second, How Freedom Is Won, identifies the tactics and forces which have most significantly contributed to democratic transitions  over the past three decades.  Through the Center for Religious Freedom, Freedom House produced a report on the presence of Saudi-government sponsored hate literature in some American mosques, and examined the impact of the imposition of extreme sharia law on religious freedom, women's rights and other human rights in a major new study, Radical Islam's Rules. 

Freedom House continues to serve as a leading advocate for policies to advance the democratic idea.  It was a founder of the Community of Democracies, an alliance of global democracies that seeks a greater voice for democracy at the United Nations and other international forums.  It supports critical reforms of the United Nations to make its work in human rights and democracy more effective.   Freedom House speaks out for religious freedom for practitioners of all faiths, and the Center for Religious Freedom played a leadership role in creating the Coalition for Southern Sudan, whose advocacy efforts helped to lead to a peace agreement in that region, ending the longest running war in Africa.

Freedom House is a strong voice for a U.S. foreign policy that places the promotion of democracy at the forefront.  Freedom House representatives regularly testify before Congress, provide briefings to Congress, the State Department, and other agencies, and argue the case for freedom  at conferences, in op-eds and through media appearances.

Additional information on Freedom House and its history can be found at the Freedom House Archives of the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University.

Timeline:

1940's                       

Wendell L. Willkie, first co-chair of Freedom House with Eleanor Roosevelt, addresses a war-time rally.

November 10, 1941- Freedom House founded by a group of prominent individuals, including journalists, scholars, political figures, and labor leaders.  Eleanor Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie served as honorary co-chairpersons.

June 1942- Freedom House sends first appeal to Pres. Roosevelt, urging action against the Nazis for the "tragic increase in the brutalities perpetuated against the people of occupied Europe"

1945- William Agar proposes a formula for creating an enlarged U.N. -- urged the nations to form a commission on human rights to frame an international bill of human rights for all members of the U.N.

1947- Freedom House urges NY Governor Dewey to take steps to combat discrimination by establishing a state university that would "accept all qualified students regardless of race, color or place of habitation"

December 10, 1947- UN General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was drafted under the leadership of Freedom House co-founder Eleanor Roosevelt

1950's

1952- Leo Cherne, an officer of Freedom House, debates Senator Joe McCarthy, on "Town Meeting On The Air," a popular radio forum, on how to deal with the communist threat

Freedom House issues statement asserting that McCarthyism has created an "atmosphere of fear and uncertainty" that damages "free expression" in the U.S.

1955- Balance Sheet of Freedom provides geopolitical assessments of political trends based mainly on anecdotal analysis, continues annually until the introduction of Freedom in the World.

1958- Eleanor Roosevelt presents Freedom Award to the Arkansas Gazette for reporting on U.S. civil rights issues

Freedom House sends a letter to Senator Lyndon Johnson supporting his civil rights legislation

1959- Freedom House publishes a New York Times advertisement before the visit of Khrushchev, urging citizens not to seem naive, uninformed or easily deceived by the Soviet leader

Freedom House publishes Soviet Crimes: A Chronological Record and Famous Words of Freedom

Freedom House Bookshelf instituted -- a program which distributed 3 million books over 28 years to citizens in developing countries

1960's

Bayard Rustin, a U.S. civil rights leader, organizer of the March on Washington which catapulted Martin Luther King, Jr. to prominence, was for many years chairman of Freedom House’s executive committee.

1961- Willy Brandt, Mayor of blockaded Berlin, received Freedom Award for his resistance to Nazism and Communism

1963- Freedom House publishes What's "Right" and "Left?" which warns both ends of the political spectrum to recognize the dangers to democratic values posed by Fascism/ Nazism and Communism

1966- Freedom House Board member Irving Kristol launches The Public Interest, initially as a Freedom House publication

1967- Freedom House convenes 14 top Asian scholars to discuss issues related to U.S. military involvement in Vietnam, the report was seen as "a clear call for moderation," and is said to have helped persuade President Johnson to reduce forces in Vietnam

1970's

1970- Freedom House organizes international efforts to form a new organization, the International Council on the Future of the University (ICFU), focused on academic freedom, university governance and the role of universities in democratic societies

First issue of Freedom at Issue (later renamed Freedom Review), a bi-monthly magazine that contained discussions of public policy questions related to freedom 

1972- First publication of a Map of Freedom, and the annual survey which became Freedom in the World, flagship of Freedom House publications on the state of freedom.  View a PDF of the first map, scores, and overview essay for Freedom in the World. 

1975- Freedom House is one of the first organizations to call attention to mounting genocide in Cambodia, Board member Leo Cherne unsuccessfully pleads with the UN Human Rights Commission to launch an investigation

1976- Freedom House becomes engaged in the battle against New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO), an attempt within UNESCO by authorization regimes to authorize government control over the media

Freedom House representatives regularly travel to South Africa to report on oppression of blacks under the apartheid systems, focused particularly on black journalists on the frontline of the struggle for equality. Helen Suzman serves on Freedom House advisory Board

1979- First publication of Freedom of the Press, a global survey of media independence produced by Freedom House

Freedom House delegation headed by Freedom House Trustee Bayard Rustin, monitors the first nationwide multiracial elections in then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), pioneering U.S. nongovernmental election monitoring efforts

1980's

A Native American leader is interviewed by the Voice of America at Freedom House.

1980- Freedom House organizes a hearing in Washington D.C. for Andrei Sakharov and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and other Soviet dissidents to testify about the fate of dissidents under the repressive Soviet system

1981- Freedom House sends representatives across the Pakistan border into Afghanistan to assess and publicize the conditions of the Soviet soldiers who were held as prisoner. Twenty prisoners were subsequently released to U.S. custody

Freedom House Trustees urge increased funding for Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, continuing Freedom House's support for international broadcasting

1981- A bimonthly publication launched -- Freedom Appeals: Documenting the Universal Struggle for Freedom -- which included texts of documents written by political prisoners and dissidents whose voices were suppressed in their own countries

1982- Freedom House observes elections in El Salvador, supports continued U.S. assistance, notes human rights abuses but also warns about long term threat to freedom from Communist insurgency

1985-88- Freedom House sponsors a conference of Latin American leaders in Chile to take steps to open up the political systems in the region. Freedom House Executive Director is appointed as the only U.S. citizen to be a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

1989- National Forum Foundation (NFF) sponsors only U.S. delegation to observe elections in Poland

1990's

President Bill Clinton delivers a major address at a Freedom House foreign policy conference, October 6, 1995.

1990- NFF/FH brings first group of Visiting Fellows to the U.S. from Poland, Hungary and Czechoslavakia.

1991- Dalai Lama receives the Freedom Award, a continuation of the relationship Freedom House had with the Tibetan struggle for freedom that began when Freedom House facilitated the Dalai Lama's first trip to the U.S. in the 1980s

1993- Freedom House opened an office in Ukraine to work for free and fair elections and to strengthen civil society

1995- First publication of Nations in Transit, an annual publication tracking democratic development in countries of the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe

Freedom House Budapest office begins work on cross-border networks to support democratic reform through Central and Eastern Europe and begins Cuba democracy programs to send books, medicine and experts on democratic transitions to support democracy advocates

Center for Religious Freedom becomes a self-sustaining division of Freedom House

1997- Freedom House merged with National Forum Foundation

1998- Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom takes leadership role in pressing for enactment of the International Religious Freedom Act and begins Coalition for Southern Sudan.  In 2005, the Center's leadership in the Coalition for Southern Sudan helped lead to a peace agreement in that region, ending the longest running war in Africa.

2000- present

2000- First Community of Democracies meeting held in Warsaw, Poland; Freedom House cosponsors non-governmental forum with the Stefan Batory Foundation

2001- Freedom House, long active in supporting civil society efforts for democratic reform in Serbia, officially opens office in Belgrade

2002- Freedom House political rights and civil liberties are officially designated as key determinants of the Millennium Challenge Account

2002-2004- Freedom House opens offices throughout Central Asia, as well as in Nigeria, Jordan, Tunisia, and Mexico

2003- Freedom House establishes a local non-profit organization in Kyrgyzstan providing a printing press for independent publications throughout Central Asia

2004- First publication of Countries at the Crossroads, a new survey focused on democratic governance and rule of law in select countries

Special reports on Arab public opinion on women's rights as part of upcoming Citizenship and Justice: A Survey of Women's Rights in the Middle East and North Africa

During the Ukrainian elections, Freedom House assists in coordinating the first ever large scale regional civic monitoring effort working with a nascent regional network, mobilizing 1000 representatives from reform-oriented monitoring groups

2005- Freedom House's Citizenship and Justice: A Survey of Women's Rights in the Middle East and North Africa is published.

How Freedom is Won, a study showing how nonviolent civil action have fostered successful transitions to democracy over the last three decades, is published.

2005-2006- Freedom House sponsors conferences highlighting North Korea's human rights abuses in Washington, DC; Seoul, South Korea; Brussels, Belgium; and Rome, Italy.

2006- Uzbek Court Suspends Freedom House Human Rights Programs in Uzbekistan for six months as part of a broader crack-down on civil activism and non-governmental organizations.

Freedom House hosts a speech by President of the United States George W. Bush.

Center for Religious Freedom seperates from Freedom House and relocates to the Hudson Institute.

2007- Freedom House opened a new field office in Southern Africa

The first group of New Generation of Advocate Fellows arrive.  New Generation of Advocates Program expands the horizons of young civil society leaders in the Middle East and North Africa by offering visiting fellowships with counterpart organizations in the U.S.

Freedom House released a report, Supporting Freedom's Advocates, analyzing the Bush Administration’s 2008 budget request for foreign operations and making specific funding recommendations based on urgent needs and opportunities.