LEADING WITH BRAVERY – LIBERTY’S NEW THREE-YEAR STRATEGY

We are at an inflection point in history. We stand at the foothills of profound social change, from the political and cultural movements which are overturning shared assumptions on freedom, equality, and democracy, to the technological revolution affecting every aspect of our everyday lives.

To meet these extraordinary challenges and help to build the just society we want to live in, Liberty has developed a new three-year strategy taking us up to 2029.

Liberty’s supporters, members, staff and key partner organisations engaged with strategy stakeholder exercises in 2025.  The messages were clear. The threats to human rights are greater than ever before in Liberty’s 90 year history. The ground seems to be shifting beneath our feet, as what was unthinkable a few years ago suddenly becomes the status quo. We are inundated with bad news, bad information and bad actors. Understandably, many people are feeling overwhelmed, confused and frozen.

But nothing is inevitable: now is the moment to mobilise.

Liberty will tell a story of hope – an ambitious, positive and inclusive story about our rights and freedoms that speaks to people and everyday lives.

Liberty will protect the rights and freedoms we have all fought so hard for.

And together we will start to build the foundations of a safe and just future.

All of this will require being brave.

Courage in these times means taking positions that may be unpopular with both your friends and detractors.

Liberty needs to champion our freedoms and rights, but needs to do so by grappling with contentious issues and arguments.

If this is a war of ideas, then we need to be there making the case for the values and ideas we believe in, and we need to be speaking to a wider audience, including people who may not instinctively agree with us. Freedom and rights do not belong to any one political party, and we must not let anyone pretend that they do.  As a cross-party organisation, we need to be influencing across the political divide.

It will mean fighting back against populist calls for citizenship stripping and the authoritarian creep of counter-terror legislation, that most powerful tool of government.

It will mean being nuanced and going beyond slogans and hashtags. We live in a pluralistic society and the issues we face are complex. We must resist the false promise of easy answers.

It will mean taking a leadership position on civil liberties and human rights.

How society navigates the contours of free speech is one of the key questions facing democracies.

But it won’t have escaped people’s notice that free speech advocates tend to only defend speech they agree with. Liberty must robustly defend the principle of freedom of expression, and alongside that lead a wider conversation on how to draw the line between lawful and unlawful speech at a time when the risks surrounding unfettered speech, online and in real life, are as grave as they have ever been.

Liberty will also continue defending our freedoms and rights.

Demands for rights and equality came to the fore in the 1970s and were then secured in the statute book. Since then, too many of us have become complacent about our rights, perhaps not seeing their everyday manifestations. After all, rights are much like your health: it is only when you lose them that you realise what you had.

Now, every day, in the press and on social media, we’re being forced to see the worst in one another. The things which frighten and divide us are being amplified and distorted. Our outrage is being aimed at a particular group or community and used to sweep away the rights and institutions that protect them. The European Convention on Human Rights, the Human Rights Act and the Equality Act: all of these are under threat. But once these protections are gone, they’re gone for all of us. We, and our children, stand to lose so much in the next few years, as the urge to move fast and break things takes hold.

The law is not enough. The law doesn’t change culture in abusive settings and it doesn’t always prevent tragedies. But without the law, there is no protection, no accountability, and no remedy. Our institutions are unwieldy and deeply imperfect – but gutting them is not the answer. Show me a democracy without institutions. This is what we risk losing.

As well as telling a story of hope, and protecting our rights and freedoms, we need to build a safe and just future.

We need to innovate and design new systems, safeguards and institutions now, to advance our rights and freedoms, and those of our children.

Liberty will work with existing and new partners to design, develop and promote future rights-based guardrails across a number of areas, including the use of AI and data in biometrics and predictive policing.

Throughout all this work, we will continue using the tools that we have developed – parliamentary influencing, strategic litigation, investigative journalism, training and public campaigning. We are a 90 year old organisation – and with that comes access, voice and influence, all of which we need to deploy with care and thought.

Over the next few years, we will be working on some of the most controversial and polarising issues of the day. It’s not going to be easy. Not everyone will agree with our positions: we must learn to be fellow travellers on this journey, where we all have our part to play.

Liberty is much smaller than people think – just over 30 people – and we receive no government funding. This means we will need to be laser focused on our mission at a time when everything will seem urgent and important. We will need to build internal resilience, including strong fundraising, good governance and a robust operational infrastructure.

In the survey responses from our members and supporters, the messages of support and solidarity were overwhelming. Yes, this work will be hard, but hope and courage are catching: we will not be alone.