Human Rights Council

The Human Rights Council (HRC) held its 49th session in Geneva from 28 February to 1 April. During a long session that covered five weeks, the Council discussed important country situations and thematic issues on the intersections between human rights and technology. 

APC has joined with over 30 other civil society organisations to send letters to member states of each of the five regional groups of UN member states, urging them to ensure competitive slates of candidates and further deepen the level of competition in the 2022 Human Rights Council elections.

APC welcomes the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief's focus on the use of hateful rhetoric in digital spaces to incite violence against religious minorities, which is of particular concern in India, where women especially are subjected to hate speech and threats online and offline.

This joint statement to the Special Rapporteur on privacy during the 49th session of the Human Rights Council expresses the concerns of APC, Derechos Digitales and Intervozes around three aspects related to data protection regulation, with a particular focus on Latin America. 

The UN Human Rights Council will be discussing a draft resolution on human rights defenders operating in conflict and post-conflict situations. Our organisations call on the Council to ensure that the resolution clearly reflects the gravity and the reality of the situation defenders face daily.

This submission was produced in response to the call by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for input to a report on internet shutdowns and human rights that will be presented to the 50th session of the Human Rights Council in June 2022.

In this open letter to the incoming president of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), APC and other organisations take the opportunity to voice a series of recommendations to ensure effective civil society participation in the upcoming 16th cycle of the HRC.

A group of more than 140 members of the multistakeholder community have signed a letter addressed to Ambassador Burhan Gafoor, Chair of the UN OEWG, about multistakeholder participation in the upcoming sessions.