This Captive Nations Week, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) honors people living under authoritarian rule around the world who continue pushing for the right to determine their own future. Created under President Ronald Reagan more than 40 years ago, NED was founded on the conviction that freedom is a universal aspiration and that those living under dictatorship should have partners in the democratic world.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Congress established Captive Nations Week in 1959, urging Americans to support the millions across Europe and Asia held “captive” by Soviet rule. In a statement, President Eisenhower declared that “the citizens of the United States are linked by bonds of family and principle to those who love freedom and justice on every continent,” while Congress recognized the desire for liberty as “a powerful deterrent to war and one of the best hopes for a just and lasting peace.”
Today, billions of people remain under brutal authoritarian rule in China, Russia, Cuba, Iran, and other countries where fundamental rights are denied and independent voices are silenced. These regimes export censorship and corruption, threaten dissidents in exile, manipulate information, and help other governments adopt their tools of control.
“Captive Nations Week has deep personal meaning for me,” said former U.S. Senator and NED Board member Mel Martínez. “I was 15 years old when I fled communist Cuba through Operation Pedro Pan. I was fortunate to find freedom in the United States, but no child should have to choose between home and liberty. Today, courageous people in Cuba and across the world continue to claim those rights at tremendous personal risk. They deserve to know that America sees them, remembers them, and believes in their cause.”
“Our partners embody the spirit Captive Nations Week was created to honor,” said NED President and CEO Damon Wilson. “Many of them have endured great hardship to seek the liberties we cherish, and their courage reminds us that we cannot turn our backs on their cause. As America marks 250 years since its founding, their example affirms that the promise of freedom and self-government still inspires people around the world.”
Together with the four Core Institutes—the Center for International Private Enterprise, the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, and the Solidarity Center—NED continues to support those working for freedom in some of the world’s most repressive environments as they build a freer future for themselves and their communities.
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NED is a private, nonprofit foundation dedicated to advancing freedom and democracy worldwide. Established in 1983 as part of President Reagan’s vision to foster an “infrastructure of democracy” with a bipartisan Congressional mandate, NED supports grassroots leaders striving for the freedom to think, speak, worship, engage politically, and support their families without fear. It mobilizes key pillars of American democracy, from political parties to business and labor, to support their counterparts abroad through the Core institutes that form the NED family: the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, the Center for International Private Enterprise, and the Solidarity Center.
