{{Short description|Human rights organization}} {{One source|date=October 2010}} {{Infobox organization | name = Freedom Now | image = | logo = Freedom_Now_Logo.jpg | logo_size = 200px | type = | founded = {{start date and age|2001}} | tax_id = | registration_id = | location = Washington, D.C., U.S. | coordinates = | origins = | key_people = Maran Turner <br /> (Executive director) | region_served = Worldwide | product = | mission = | focus = Human rights | method = | revenue = | endowment = | num_volunteers = | num_employees = | num_members = | subsid = | founder = Jared Genser | website = {{URL|freedom-now.org}} }} '''Freedom Now''' is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit, non-partisan organization that opposes government repression and defends human rights through direct legal support, advocacy, and capacity-building analysis and assistance.<ref>{{Cite web|title=About Us {{!}} Freedom Now|url=https://www.freedom-now.org/about-us/|access-date=2021-07-23|website=www.freedom-now.org}}</ref> It was founded in 2001 by Jared Genser.<ref name="Genser-bio">{{cite web |title=Jared Genser |url=https://perseus-strategies.com/team/jared-genser-english/ |website=Perseus Strategies, LLC |access-date=14 November 2025 |date=19 December 2024}}</ref>
Its approach is to use focused legal, political, and public relations advocacy efforts<ref>Kashino, Marisa M. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110729031104/http://www.washingtonian.com/print/articles/6/0/17038.html "I'm an American"] ''Washingtonian'' Oct. 12, 2010. Retrieved June 26, 2011.</ref> designed to compel the release of individuals deprived of their liberty in violation of the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and other international human rights instruments.<ref>Jared Genser & Margaret Winterkorn-Meikle, [http://www.freedom-now.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/CHRLRArticle.pdf The Intersection of Politics and International Law: The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in Theory and Practice] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724192124/http://www.freedom-now.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/CHRLRArticle.pdf |date=2011-07-24 }}, 38 COLUM. HUM. RTS. L. REV. 101, 131 n. 139 (2008).</ref>
A small organization with limited resources, Freedom Now works with other human rights organizations and lawyers{{Examples|date=October 2010}} to identify cases that would benefit from the organization's approach.
== Notable campaigns == Freedom Now represents 38 prisoners of conscience worldwide, including:<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Cases {{!}} Freedom Now|url=https://www.freedom-now.org/all-cases/|access-date=2021-07-23|website=www.freedom-now.org}}</ref> *Abdulhadi Alkhawaja (Bahrain) *Loujain Alhathloul (Saudi Arabia) *G.N. Saibaba (India) *Buzurgmehr Yorov (Tajikistan)
== Notable past campaigns == thumb|Óscar Elías Biscet in 2016. Prisoners of conscience previously represented by Freedom Now include:<ref name=":0" /> *Eskinder Nega (Ethiopia) *Óscar Elías Biscet, M.D. (Cuba) *Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly (Vietnam) *Andrei Sannikov (Belarus) *Lapiro de Mbanga (Cameroon) *Dr. Yang Jianli (China)
== UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Database == In 2011, Freedom Now partnered with the UN and Thomson Reuters to create the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Database. The online database includes over 1,000 legal decisions from 1992 to the present.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marketscreener.com/THOMSON-REUTERS-CORP-1411972/news/Thomson-Reuters-Corp-United-Nations-Thomson-Reuters-and-Freedom-Now-Establish-Legal-Database-13890362/|title=Thomson Reuters Corp : United Nations, Thomson Reuters and Freedom Now Establish Legal Database {{!}} MarketScreener|last=MarketScreener|website=www.marketscreener.com|language=en|access-date=2020-01-28}}</ref> It is the only searchable, complete database of Working Group decisions available. Freedom Now continues to monitor and update the database.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.unwgaddatabase.org/un/Document.aspx?id=1944|title=United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Document Search|last=|first=|date=|website=|access-date=}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.freedom-now.org Freedom Now homepage]
Category:Human rights organizations based in the United States