Annual Report 2025: What we have achieved over the past year
Our latest report shows how encounters, solidarity and collective action can bring about lasting change and empower people affected by persecution, war and destruction.
In June 2025, Sergei Tikhanovsky was released from five years of political imprisonment in Belarus. One of the first things he did was ring his godparent – the Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski – to thank him. Shortly afterwards, the two met in Warsaw – two people who had never met before. They had been brought together by our godparenthood campaign #WeStandBYyou: a name held aloft on a sheet of paper and a shared refusal to remain silent in the face of human rights violations.
This encounter epitomises much of what LIBERECO stood for in 2025: forging connections across the borders and restrictions that dictatorships seek to impose. Shining a light on where human rights are being violated, supporting those affected by them, and organising what is lacking. This could be a long-awaited medical examination or a letter offering hope, a space where children of the same age can laugh and play together again, or fire-fighting equipment.
It was not an easy year. The new US administration brought about far-reaching changes in the international funding landscape, the effects of which we – and even more so our partners on the ground – felt immediately. At the same time, the Lukashenko regime continues to create political prisoners, while Ukraine continues to fight a war. For an entire generation of children, this is not a state of emergency but the only reality they have ever known.
Remaining capable of acting together
Without the commitment of our partner organisations on the ground, our supporters – both large and small – and our full-time and voluntary staff, our human rights work and our wide range of humanitarian, medical, legal and psychosocial support services would not have been possible. Their dedication, expertise and trust form the foundation of our work.
What has guided us in 2025 is the conviction, repeatedly confirmed by our daily contact with those affected, that health and the capacity to act are fundamental prerequisites for human rights work. To stand up for others, for freedom and justice, people need strength, confidence and resilience. All of this arises from relationships; it lies in what connects people to one another.
This report provides an insight into our work – into the visible part, consisting of figures, projects and events. But also, into the part that lies beneath and forms the foundation: encounters, relationships and efforts that have brought about change.
We invite you to read on and would like to thank all our supporters for making our work possible.
Download of the Annual Report 2025:
