Apr 24
More than 100 years after the Bolshevik Revolution in which a communist regime first grasped power, and 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, one-fifth of the world’s population still lives under communist regimes in China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam. Freedom is losing ground in Crimea, Hong Kong, Venezuela, and the former countries of the Soviet Union. The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) exists to study, record, and broadcast the facts—to bring the truth of the brutal failures of communism to a forgetful and uninformed public.
Geopolitical actors from Beijing and Pyongyang to Havana and Caracas desperately want to undermine the West’s ability to condemn their tyrannies and encourage their people’s desire for freedom. They present single-party dictatorship and high-tech totalitarianism as acceptable 21st-century alternatives to Western democracy. This tactic is working. From the United Nations at Turtle Bay to the European Union headquarters in Brussels, and even at times the White House and Congress, too many institutions have accepted foreign communist claims as valid. Our target audience for this program includes dissidents, ethnic and human rights organizations, policymakers, diplomats, and the media.
Captive Nations Coalition
We provide a powerful platform for today’s dissidents by partnering with other advocates and organizations to convene public rallies, foster dialogue, brief policymakers, and award the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation’s Human Rights Award. Each July, we lead efforts to mark National Captive Nations Week in fulfillment of the 1959 congressional resolution adopted during the Eisenhower administration. We host a summit, welcome congressional remarks, read the official presidential proclamation, and publish an annual State of the Captive Nations report on conditions in countries of concern.
Latin America Programs
We support dissidents and activists in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua in documenting human rights abuses, giving voice to civil society and pro-democracy groups in these countries, and educating the American public and U.S. policymakers about the realities on the ground.
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS
We inform Members of Congress, federal government officials, state governments, foreign governments, and international organizations about the ideology, history, and legacy of communism. The bipartisan Victims of Communism Congressional Caucus leads legislative initiatives and issues official letters. We convene officials for public remembrance events, host briefings and rallies on Capitol Hill, participate in official ministerial summits and legislative working groups, and bring together foreign policy makers with dissidents.
Transatlantic Human Rights Forum
The U.S. and Europe are bound together by a commitment to the shared principles of democracy, market economics, individual liberty, and the rule of law. This commitment is the bedrock of our common Western heritage of political and economic freedom, which has created unprecedented opportunities for human flourishing. This civic initiative provides a platform for officials, leaders, and scholars to dialogue with dissidents and witnesses to the crimes of communism. The goal is to educate policymakers about the people suffering under single-party Marxist dictatorships around the world today.
