Blog Post Feb 16, 2024 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #11 In the past week, we’ve seen Kosovo’s ban on the Serbian currency, a cross-border CBDC transaction between regimes in the United Arab Emirates and China, Bitcoin claim all-time highs against a variety of different fiat currencies, and a long-awaited breakthrough in the Lightning Network that promises to significantly boost user privacy.
Op-Ed Feb 15, 2024 The American Consulting Firms That Live in Fear of Their Murderous Clients For years, America’s most prominent consulting firms have been competing against one another to service the most heinous regimes on the planet, offering their efforts and advice for tyrants and kleptocrats looking to expand their reach and their repression.
Blog Post Feb 9, 2024 A History of Sports and Dictators, Part 1: From Ramses II to Rome’s Bread & Circuses In the Olympic Games of 416, Athenian statesman and military general Alcibiades fielded seven teams in one of the most prestigious Olympic events, the four-horse chariot race known as the quadriga.
Announcement Feb 8, 2024 HRF launches NK Insider The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is excited to announce the launch of NK Insider, the first English-language news platform featuring information, analyses, and op-eds about North Korea written by North Korean defectors.
Announcement Feb 6, 2024 HRF Freedom Fellowship partners with Ignite Talks The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is delighted to announce an ongoing partnership with Ignite Talks for the Freedom Fellowship program.
Announcement Feb 2, 2024 Beyond Utopia now available on streaming platforms The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is pleased to announce that “Beyond Utopia,” a BAFTA-nominated and du-Pont-Columbia Award-winning film that follows the harrowing journeys of several individuals as they attempt to escape North Korea, is now available to stream on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and YouTube.
Blog Post Feb 1, 2024 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #9 This past week, Egyptians were told to put up with soaring inflation, while we saw Kazakhstan’s financial suppression of journalists and Pakistan’s continued rise in Bitcoin adoption.
Reports Feb 1, 2024 Infiltrating America: How the United Arab Emirates Launched an Unprecedented Political Interference Campaign in the United States For years, one foreign dictatorship has overseen an unprecedented interference effort aimed at the heart of the U.S. political process, unleashing squadrons of lobbyists while launching illicit campaigns that reached directly into the highest ranks of the American government.
Announcement Jan 30, 2024 HRF Wear Your Values Program Wins Two Anthem Awards The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is pleased to announce that its Wear Your Values (WYV) program video has won the Anthem Community Voice Award and the Silver Anthem Award in the Human Rights and Civil Rights Category.
Blog Post Jan 25, 2024 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #8 Today we bring you news of Chinese citizens trading cryptocurrency despite a state-imposed ban, Russia’s recent blockage of VPN services and privacy protocols ahead of next month’s presidential elections, and Venezuela’s attempt to pass legislation that takes aim at the funding of civil society organizations and human rights defenders.
Publication Jan 24, 2024 STRANDED: HOW BITCOIN IS SAVING WASTED ENERGY AND EXPANDING FINANCIAL FREEDOM IN AFRICA Hundreds of millions of Africans face two problems holding them back from progress: 600 million lack electricity, while virtually all 1.4 billion people on the continent lack high-quality currency.
Op-Ed Jan 23, 2024 How the US Became the World’s Refuge for Dirty Money For years, a small company headquartered in South Dakota toiled in one of the most boring niches imaginable.
Announcement Jan 21, 2024 Victory for Students for a Free Tibet: Q&A with Tibetan Activist Pema Doma Pema Doma is a Tibetan human rights and climate campaigner, a Human Rights Foundation (HRF) Freedom Fellow, and the executive director for Students for a Free Tibet (SFT), a global grassroots network working for Tibetan rights.
Blog Post Jan 18, 2024 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #7 This week, we delve into censorship on the Indian app stores, protests in Papua New Guinea triggered by pay cuts to the police, Ghana borrowing another $600 million from the IMF, and a new Bitcoin circular economy in Zambia.
Announcement Jan 16, 2024 HRF Freedom Fellowship Spotlight: Joey Siu Meet Joey Siu, a Human Rights Foundation (HRF) Freedom Fellow and Hong Kong activist based in Washington, D.C.
Op-Ed Jan 16, 2024 Taiwan’s ruling party needs to double down on democracy Taiwan’s incumbent ruling party, the Democratic People’s Party (DPP), may have been able to clinch a victory in a tight presidential race on Saturday, but it’s much too early to bask in the win.
Blog Post Jan 15, 2024 Beyond Borders: China’s Transnational Repression of Uyghurs In March, Turkish police raided a bookstore in Istanbul, accusing it of selling copies of Uyghur books banned by the Chinese regime without proper copyright.
Blog Post Jan 12, 2024 Fueling Ambition: Aramco’s pivotal role in Saudi Arabia’s sports expansion In November 2023, news broke that Aramco—Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil and energy giant—was set to complete a “significant sponsorship” deal with FIFA that would make it the football governing body’s biggest sponsor over the coming decade.
Blog Post Jan 11, 2024 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #6 This week, we brief you on China’s censorship of economic indicators, the freezing of bank accounts of indigenous activists in the Philippines, and the record inflation rate in Pakistan.
Blog Post Jan 4, 2024 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #5 We start 2024 with an exciting announcement: HRF granted $500,000 to 18 projects worldwide. Our Q4 gifts focused on global education, Bitcoin Core, mining decentralization, and projects that support freedom tech developers in closed societies.