Freedom House

Freedom Houseis a non-profit organization that relies upon tax-deductible grants and donations under Section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code.[1] Corporate researcher Holly Sklar described it as a "conservative research, publishing, networking, and selective human rights organization.". Freedom House's work is linked to the "democracy promotion" efforts of the National Endowment for Democracy.

Freedom House is a small but influential organization with bases in Washington and New York. In 2006 it was reported to have more than 120 offices around the world and an annual budget of US$19 million. A high percentage of its funding is reported to come from the State Department (an average of 95% between 2000 and 2003) and it is described as having a list of trustees 'consisting of a Who's Who of neoconservatives from government, business, academia, labor, and the press'

Background

Freedom House describes itself as non-partisan and broad-based, "a clear voice for democracy and freedom around the world." It was founded "nearly sixty years ago by Eleanor Roosevelt, Wendell Willkie, and other Americans concerned with the mounting threats to peace and democracy, Freedom House has been a vigorous proponent of democratic values and a steadfast opponent of dictatorships of the far left and the far right."

Freedom House sees itself "at the center of the struggle for freedom ... It was an outspoken advocate of the Marshall Plan and NATO in the 1940s, of the U.S. civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, of the Vietnam boat people in the 1970s, of Poland's Solidarity movement and the Filipino democratic opposition in the 1980s, and of the many democracies that have emerged around the world in the 1990s ... Freedom House has vigorously opposed dictatorships in Central America and Chile, apartheid in South Africa, the suppression of the Prague Spring, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, genocide in Bosnia and Rwanda, and the brutal violation of human rights in Cuba, Burma, China, and Iraq ... It has championed the rights of democratic activists, religious believers, trade unionists, journalists, and proponents of free markets. In 1997, a consolidation took place whereby the international democratization training programs of the National Forum Foundation were incorporated into Freedom House."[2]

Board of Trustees

The Freedom House Board of Trustees is described as "composed of leading Democrats, Republicans, and independents; business and labor leaders; former senior government officials; scholars; writers; and journalists."[3]

In 2009, Freedom House lists their Trustees as:

William H. Taft IV, Chair	Ruth Wedgwood, Vice-Chair	Thomas A. Dine, Vice-Chair
Walter J. Schloss, Treasurer	John Norton Moore, Secretary, Governance & Ethics Officer	Max M. Kampelman, Chairman Emeritus
Bette Bao Lord, Chairman Emeritus	Kenneth L. Adelman	Susan J. Bennett
James H. Carter	Antonia Cortese	Lee Cullum
Paula J. Dobriansky	Alan P. Dye	Stuart Eizenstat
Carleton S. (Carly) Fiorina	Sidney Harman	D. Jeffrey Hirschberg
John T. Joyce	Kathryn Dickey Karol
Farooq Kathwari	Anthony Lake	Lawrence Lessig
Michael Lewan	Jay Mazur	Theodore N. Mirvis
Dalia Mogahed	Joshua Muravchik	Azar Nafisi
David Nastro	Andrew Nathan	Diana Villiers Negroponte
P. J. O'Rourke	Mark Palmer	Carlos Pascual
Scott Siff	Arthur Waldron	Richard S. Williamson
Wendell L. Willkie II

Funding

• Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
• Byrne Foundation
• Carthage Foundation
• Scaife Foundations
• Eurasia Foundation
• Ford Foundation
• The Freedom Forum
• Grace Foundation, Inc.
• Lilly Endowment, Inc.
• LWH Family Foundation
• National Endowment for Democracy
• Pew Charitable Trusts
• Sarah Scaife Foundation (Scaife Foundations)
• Schloss Family Foundation
• Smith Richardson Foundation, Inc.
• Soros Foundations
• Tinker Foundation
• Unilever United States Foundation, Inc.
• US Agency for International Development
• US Information Agency

Affiliations

• American Committee for Peace in Chechnya
• Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
• Jamestown Foundation

NB: These organizations often co-host events, there is personnel overlap, and at some point have shared offices.

• UN Watch

The Monthly Review Foundation reports in an article describing the history of Freedom House that some of the affiliations of its trustees and associates included the State Department, the National Security Council (Jeane Kirkpatrick), the CIA (through front groups), the U.S. Information Agency, the Trilateral Commission (Zbigniew Brzezinski), the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Committee on the Present Danger, Accuracy in Media, the American Enterprise Institute, Crisis, The New Republic and PRODEMCA (a group that is reported to have raised funds and lobbied for the Contras). During the 1980s, it is claimed that Freedom House also formed the Afghanistan Information Center, one of several NED-funded groups supporting the mujahedin. This was reportedly to have complement the government's US $3,000 million covert funding program for the anti-Soviet groups.

Contact

New York Office

120 Wall Street, Floor 26

New York, NY 10005

Phone: 212-514-8040

FAX: 212-514-8055

URL: www.freedomhouse.org

Washington D.C. Office

1319 18th Street, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20036

Phone: 202-296-5101

FAX: 202-296-5078

External Resources

• Holly Sklar, "Washington Wants to Buy Nicaragua's Elections Again: A Guide to US Operatives and Nicaraguan Parties," Z Magazine, December 1989.
• Freedom House Archives 1936-1999, Princeton Univ., Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library.
• Bill Berkowitz, "Freedom House receiving US government money "for clandestine activities inside Iran"", Media Transparency, April 4, 2006.