135 Results
Quotes
Quotes based on international documents, law, and treaties- "The Human Rights Council, (…) 14. Condemns all undue restrictions on freedom of opinion and expression online that violate international law, and notes with concern that such restrictions have a significant impact on women and girls and other individuals who may face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination."
- "The Assembly calls on social media companies to: 11.1. define in clear and unambiguous terms the standards regarding admissible or inadmissible content, which must comply with Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and should be accompanied, if need be, by explanations and (fictional) examples of content banned from dissemination."
- "States should refrain from network shutdowns, which are a categorical violation of international human rights law. They must also ensure that any restriction on blogs, websites, online content and communications platforms is provided by law, and a necessary and proportionate means to protect a legitimate objective."
- "States should promote effective access to the Internet and other digital technologies for all parts of population, including by closing digital gaps based on gender, race, ethnicity, disability, socio-economic status and other bases, and putting in place clear requirements and policies to ensure respect for the principle of net neutrality."
- "There should be no prior censorship of the media, including through means such as the administrative blocking of media websites or Internet shutdowns."
- "States should refrain from adopting unnecessary and/or disproportionate laws criminalising or imposing harsher penalties on online expression than its offline equivalent."
- "Internet-based technologies play an increasing role in the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. The Internet can be used for forms of online activism related to assemblies, and such activities warrant protection. The Internet and social media may also legitimately serve as a means of facilitating assemblies."
- "States have a positive duty to facilitate and protect the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. This duty should be reflected in the legislative framework and relevant law enforcement regulations and practices. It includes a duty to facilitate assemblies at the organizer’s preferred location and within ‘sight and sound’ of the intended audience. The duty to protect also involves the protection of assembly organizers and participants from third party individuals or groups who seek to undermine their right to freedom of peaceful assembly."
- "Counter-demonstrations shall be facilitated so that they occur within ‘sight and sound’ of their target unless this does not physically interfere with the other assembly and does not give rise to a risk of imminent violence that cannot be mitigated or prevented."
- "All reasonable and appropriate measures should be taken to ensure that spontaneous and non-notified assemblies are facilitated and protected in the same way as assemblies that are planned in advance. "
- "A notification regime should never be turned into a de facto authorization procedure. The procedure for providing advance notification to public authorities should not be onerous or overly bureaucratic."
- "Any restrictions imposed on assemblies must have a formal basis in law and be based on one or more of the legitimate grounds prescribed by relevant international and regional human rights instruments: national security, public safety, public order, the protection of public health or morals, and the protection of the rights and freedoms of others."
- "Any restrictions on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, whether set out in law or applied in practice, must be both necessary in a democratic society to achieve a legitimate aim, and proportionate to such an aim. The least intrusive means of achieving a legitimate aim should always be given preference."
- "Law enforcement agencies should adopt a human rights-based approach to all aspects of the planning, preparation and policing of assemblies. This means they take into consideration their duty to facilitate and protect the right to freedom of peaceful assembly."
- "The right to freedom of assembly, in principle, also includes the right to choose the date and time of the assembly."
- "People also have the right, in principle, to choose the location or route of an assembly in publicly accessible places. The location or route may include, but need not be limited to, public parks, squares, streets, roads, avenues, sidewalks, pavement, footpaths, and open areas near public buildings and facilities."
- "Legislation and state policies should therefore ensure that the Internet can be used to prepare and organize assemblies and especially to use social media as a medium to mobilize and organize assemblies that later take place offline."
- "Access to the Internet and social media should not be blocked before or during assemblies. Since the planning and organization of an assembly is likewise covered by the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, websites and other electronic tools used to advertise and inform about an assembly shall not be restricted or blocked; any attempts to do so would usually constitute a violation of this right."
- "Given the state’s duty to facilitate assemblies, and its general public order mandate, the authorities may not levy charges on assembly organizers for providing relevant services, including adequate and appropriate policing, medical services or health and safety provisions, such as street cleaning."
- "Prohibiting an assembly should be a measure of last resort and should only be considered when a less restrictive response would not achieve the purpose pursued by the authorities in safeguarding other relevant rights and freedoms, and public order."
- "Full exercise of the right must be the norm; the right may only be restricted where the test for the implementation of restrictions under international law is met, namely that the restrictions in question are provided for by law, serve a legitimate interests recognised by international human rights law, and are a necessary and proportionate means of protecting that interest."
- "The peacefulness of an assembly must be presumed, and the term “peaceful” must be interpreted broadly and exclude only acts of widespread and serious violence that cannot be isolated from the assembly."
- "States have a positive obligation to promote the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. This requires States not merely to refrain from interfering with assemblies, but also to take positive steps to enable individuals to express their views, including through protecting assemblies from attacks by third parties and by otherwise facilitating the ability for the right to freedom of assembly to be exercised."
- "To the extent the law suggests that assembly organizers provide the authorities prior notification, the purpose of that notification should be to enable the State to put in place necessary arrangements to facilitate the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to protect participants, public order, public safety and the rights and freedoms of others."
- "States must refrain from using information and communication technology to intimidate, harass or otherwise deter individuals from exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly, including through the spreading of disinformation, targeted harassment, mass surveillance, and the generalized use of facial recognition technology."
- "An assembly should not be banned or dispersed merely on the basis that it temporarily interferes with commercial activities or the free flow of traffic."
- "States must ensure that assembly participants are able, to the extent possible in light of other legitimate concerns recognized by international human rights law, to conduct their assemblies within “sight and sound” of their target audience."
- "The right to freedom of peaceful assembly also applies to online spaces and the use of information and communications technology. States must refrain from restricting access to the Internet, specific websites or telecommunication networks for the purpose of preventing peaceful assemblies."
- "States should actively promote universal access to the Internet regardless of political, social, economic or cultural differences, including by respecting the principles of net neutrality and of the centrality of human rights to the development of the Internet."
- "Respect international human rights standards, including those of transparency, when seeking to regulate or influence expression on online media platforms."
- "Recognise the right to access and use the Internet as a human right as an essential condition for the exercise of the right to freedom of expression."
- "State mandated blocking of entire websites, IP addresses, ports or network protocols is an extreme measure which can only be justified where it is provided by law and is necessary to protect a human right or other legitimate public interest, including in the sense of that it is proportionate, there are no less intrusive alternative measures which would protect the interest and it respects minimum due process guarantees."
- "Smart regulation, not heavy-handed viewpoint-based regulation, should be the norm, focused on ensuring company transparency and remediation to enable the public to make choices about how and whether to engage in online forums."
- "The Human Rights Council has strongly condemned the use of Internet shutdowns that intentionally and arbitrarily prevent or disrupt access to information online. Shutting down the Internet is an inherently disproportionate response, given the blanket nature of the act, which blocks multiple other uses of the Internet. As such, it violates the requirement of necessity and proportionality set out in international human rights law."
- "States have resorted to disproportionate measures such as Internet shutdowns and vague and overly broad laws to criminalize, block, censor and chill online speech and shrink civic space. These measures are not only incompatible with international human rights law but also contribute to amplifying misperceptions, fostering fear and entrenching public mistrust of institutions."