Human beings need to assemble and come together to defend a cause, promote an action or share a passion. In addition to being universal rights, the freedoms of association and assembly are a social necessity and a psychological need.
Obstructing these two freedoms allows some states, on the one hand, to prevent citizens from acting collectively, and on the other hand, to insidiously silence causes in an indirect and less visible way. The observation of arbitrary dissolutions and mistreatment of the freedoms of association and peaceful assembly throughout the world justifies the creation of an international instrument to measure the fulfilment by States of their duty to respect, apply and protect the freedoms of association and peaceful assembly.
Indeed, despite the fact that civil society is mentioned in numerous international and regional treaties, covenants and conventions, the contradiction between its role as a counter-power and the absence of an international tool to measure the level of its respect appears to be a missing indicator in the evaluation of fundamental freedoms.
article20.com is an international instrument for monitoring and measuring the state of freedom of association and peaceful assembly around the world. It assesses the application of article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association”.
article20.com has two components: The Observatory (ORAA20) and the Racines Index:
– The Observatory for Freedom of Association and Peaceful Assembly (ORAA20): A system for monitoring these two freedoms around the world. It will make it possible to monitor abuses by States of these two universal freedoms.
– The Racines Index: Biannual international ranking of countries according to their respect, application and protection of article 20 of the UDHR.
article20.com monitors and measures respect for the right of many people to form peaceful associations, collectives or groups, whatever the peaceful and legal issues concerned.