In partnership with members and networks, APC is working to protect and promote human rights online, engaging governments and other relevant stakeholders through a variety of United Nations processes including participating in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR).

It’s been a year of increasing debates about the internet and human rights among governments in the UN. Read this account of the main developments since 2011 and the challenges ahead.

APC welcomes the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to peaceful assembly and association and makes recommendations for how these rights can be promoted and protected online.

APC welcomes the success of the Human Rights Council expert panel on freedom of expression that took place in Geneva on 29 February as an important step towards promoting and protecting human rights online. Anriette Esterhuysen, APC’s executive director and panellist said, “It was extremely encouraging that states agree that the same rights that apply in the offline world also apply online.”

With the success of the recent expert panel on freedom of expression and the internet, now is the time to push for governments and international human rights organisations to commit to take concrete actions to promote and protect freedom of expression online.

The Association for Progressive Communications, in coordination with local members and networks, successfully submitted UPR reports for India, Brazil, South Africa and Ecuador focused on internet-related human rights issues. We call on civil society groups and governments to lobby for internet-related rights issues to be on the agenda in their respective countries.

The Swedish proposal to establish an expert panel on human rights and the internet passes by consensus at the Human Rights Council. APC welcomes this as a crucial step to having internet rights be the theme of the 2012 IGF.