A selection of our english publications:
2021 Study: Why civil society in Europe is in danger
Together with the Open Society Foundations, the Society for Civil Rights has produced a study on the importance of civil society for a vibrant democracy. It looked not only at countries like Hungary and Poland, but also at those like France and Spain. The study shows that political engagement by civil society is not only restricted in autocratic countries, but also in those we perceive as intact democracies.
2020 GFF study: Article 17 of copyright reform is contrary to fundamental rights
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is currently deliberating on upload filters. On the occasion of this court case, the Society for Civil Rights is today publishing a comprehensive study on the fundamental rights problems of Article 17 of the EU Copyright Directive.
At issue in the proceedings is whether Article 17 violates freedom of expression and information by requiring certain platforms to automatically block copyright infringements. The government of Poland, which is calling for the deletion of Article 17, is not exactly known as a champion of fundamental rights itself. But Poland was just one of six countries that voted against the Copyright Directive in the EU Council of Ministers last year because the reform fails to strike a fair balance between the rights of users, rights holders and platform companies.
The importance of the ongoing court case goes far beyond copyright. While the member states are still busy transposing Article 17 into national law, the EU institutions are already discussing a regulation that could also make the use of upload filters mandatory to combat terrorism. It is well known that legal expressions of opinion also fall victim to such filters time and again. The European Court of Justice has the opportunity here to make a fundamental ruling on the fundamental rights assessment of upload filters.
2019 - Study Invading Refugees Phones Digital Forms of Migration Control Gesellschaft fuer Freiheitsrechte 2019
We are taking legal action against the BAMF's cell phone data evaluations - in court and at the Federal Data Protection Officer. Because the authority violates the basic rights of thousands of refugees when accessing personal data.
More about the case: Refugee Phone Search