Our history

Unlock Democracy was formed in 2007 when Charter 88 and the New Politics Network merged.

Charter 88 was a pressure group that advocated for constitutional and electoral reform. In 1988, it featured in the New Statesman and the Observer –

Charter 88 called for many of the same constitutional reforms that Unlock Democracy are campaigning for now. The original demands were as follows –

Charter 88’s proposed constitutional settlement

1. Enshrine by means of a Bill of Rights, such civil liberties as the right to peaceful assembly, to freedom of association, to freedom from discrimination, to freedom from detention without trial, to trial by jury, to privacy and to freedom of expression.

2. Subject executive powers and prerogatives, by whomsoever exercised, to the rule of law.

3. Establish freedom of information and open government.

4. Create a fair electoral system of proportional representation.

5. Reform the upper house to establish a democratic, non-hereditary second chamber.

6. Place the executive under the power of a democratically renewed parliament and all agencies of the state under the rule of law.

7. Ensure the independence of a reformed judiciary.

8. Provide legal remedies for all abuses of power by the state and by officials of central and local government.

9. Guarantee an equitable distribution of power between the nations of the UK and between local, regional and central governments.

10. Draw up a written constitution, anchored in the idea of universal citizenship, which incorporates these reforms.

The New Politics Network was an independent political and campaigning think tank in the United Kingdom, concerned with democratic renewal and popular participation in politics.

Read more

Charter 88 and the Constitutional Reform Movement: a Retrospective by David Erdos