Human Rights Council
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and IFEX submitted a written statement ahead of the Human Rights Council’s 36th session to express their grave concern about the growing crackdown on the use of secure digital communications, and in particular the arrest and pre-trial detention of IT consultant Ali Gharavi and non-violence and wellbeing trainer Peter Steudtner, together with eight Turkish human rights defenders. States have the obligation to facilitate the use of sec...
The Association for Progressive Communications and the Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA), a non-governmental organisation based in the Philippines, would like to call the attention of the Human Rights Council (HRC) to concerns relating to the Philippines’ Universal Periodic Review (UPR) during the 27th session of the Working Group on the UPR. APC and FMA welcome the participation of the Government of the Philippines (GPH) in the UPR despite an earlier attempt to defer from the process...
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and organisations supporting this joint statement express concern over the lack of attention to the shrinking space for human rights online in India during the 3rd cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). Despite the explicit recognition by the Government of India of the need and importance of extending free speech guarantees to activiti...
This year’s report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of expression and opinion confirmed growing attention to the impact of digital media on human rights: after previous work dedicated to the impact of surveillance, and to communications encryption and anonymity, the report that was issued this spring and debated at the UN Human Rights Counci...
In parts of Africa, governments have promulgated cybercrime legislation which has been used to prosecute and intimidate citizens for making any critical expression against governing regimes. They are also introducing special legislation that suspends or limits online mobilisation. But the internet has also increased, among others, people's ability to organise political activity, and increased t...
The latest report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, David Kaye, presented in June 2017 to the UN Human Rights Council, focused on the role of digital access providers in ensuring the provision of human rights, with a particular focus on private actors’ responsibilities and the inclusion of these responsibilities in the...
The actions captured in this report reflect the energy, diversity and growth of the APC network. New members AlterMundi, from Argentina, Point of View, from India, Rhizomatica, from Mexico, Social Media Exchange (SMEX), from Lebanon, and Zenzeleni Networks, from South Africa, have added to the richness of the APC community and the breadth of our reach. Growth in the number of APC’s organisati...
This year, the Philippines is undergoing its third Universal Periodic Review (UPR) before the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC). The Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA) submitted a UPR stakeholder report on the state of digital rights in the Philippines together with the Association of Progressive Communications (APC), as well as another submission on the right to privacy together with P...
From 6 to 23 June, the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) held its 35th session, with debates on the situation of human rights worldwide. From harassment of human rights defenders and civil society activists, to crackdowns on freedom of expression and media freedom, to the threats faced by women and girls under conflict, a diversity of issues were highlighted. As we pointed out with our ...
Oral statement delivered by the Association for Progressive Communications under Item 3: General Debate UN Human Rights Council 35th Session, 14 June 2017 Delivered by Deborah Brown Thank you Mr. President. The Association for Progressive Communications welcomes the High Commissioner's report on bridging the gender digital divide. In particular, we commend its emphasis on the inte...

Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2019
Unless otherwise stated, content on the APC website is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
