Our mission

ARTICLE 19 works for a world where all people everywhere can freely express themselves and actively engage in public life without fear of discrimination.

We do this by working on two interlocking freedoms which set the foundation for all our work:

1. The Freedom to Speak concerns everyone’s right to express and disseminate opinions, ideas and information through any means, as well as to disagree with, and question power-holders.
2. The Freedom to Know concerns the right to demand and receive information by power-holders for transparency, good governance and sustainable development.

When either of these freedoms comes under threat, either by the failure of power-holders to adequately protect them, ARTICLE 19 speaks with one voice, through courts of law, through global and regional organisations, and through civil society wherever we are present.

1. The Freedom to Speak
2. The Freedom to Know

Global Expression Report

The Global Expression Report is our global human rights strategy.  Through it, we target the best means of protecting rights and freedoms on the ground, while enhancing international instruments that protect freedom of expression and the right to information around the world.

Each year we produce a unique report on the state of freedom of expression globally. The “GxR Report” looks at trends across major issues of freedom of expression and information, and how they are experienced in various countries.  Our GxR metric gives a comprehensive picture of the state of freedom of expression and information across the world. 

Global Expression Report for 2021

The Expression Agenda: Five Themes

ARTICLE 19  works on five interacting areas: civic space, digital, media, protection, and transparency, all of which are underpinned by a focus on equality, and our local to global theory of change.  

• Civic Space
• Digital
• Media
• Protection
• Transparency

An international team

ARTICLE 19 delivers change through local as well as international influence.  That is why our people are based in a number of major cities and regions around the world.  

We have teams leading advocacy in cities such as New York and Dhaka, and thematic experts driving policy change in places as diverse as Nairobi and Tunis.

Meet the Global management team  Meet the International team

1. We act with integrity
2. We are transparent
3. We love to work collaboratively
4. We celebrate and defend diversity
5. We are accountable
6. We never give up
7. We seek to innovate and learn

Funding and governance

The work of ARTICLE 19 is enabled through major regional and international  projects funded by institutional donors. Accountability for our operations is maintained by an International Board of trustees, working to the highest standards of transparency and integrity in governance, and drawing on the expertise and of its members.  

The International Board approves the annual report and accounts of ARTICLE 19, in which are