human rights online

The undersigned organisations and activists firmly reject the violent repression, arbitrary arrests and use of surveillance technologies to intimidate, harass, persecute and silence defenders of human rights and nature in Ecuador in the context of the protests that started on 13 June 2022.

APC's priorities at this session of UN Human Rights Council include gender-based violence online, in particular the issue of gendered disinformation and violence against women journalists; freedom of expression and association; and the human rights impact of the tech sector.

APC and other civil society organisations are concerned that the gateway will supercharge the government’s censorship capabilities, allowing it to scale up its website blocking, and could generate self-censorship online among critical voices and independent media outlets.

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. 

In 2020, Facebook (now Meta) commissioned the law firm Foley Hoag to conduct a Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) to evaluate its role in spreading hate speech and incitement to violence on its services in India. A year and a half later, the HRIA has not yet been released.

We want people, especially those facing discrimination and oppression, to have greater power and autonomy through digital technologies to exercise their full range of human rights online and offline. Check out our achievements in this area in 2020.

APC has joined with over 150 other civil society organisations and independent experts to call for the moratorium following media revelations that NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware has been used to facilitate human rights violations around the world on a massive scale.

In this joint statement, APC and other civil society organisations share their perspectives on the recently concluded 47th session of the UN Human Rights Council, held in Geneva from 21 June to 13 July in a hybrid format that combined face-to-face and online sessions.