642 Results
Quotes
Quotes based on international documents, law, and treaties- "In dispersing violent assemblies and demonstrations, specific reference is made concerning firearms, i.e., that they may be used only when less dangerous measures prove ineffective and when there is an imminent threat of death or of serious injury. Firing indiscriminately into a violent crowd is never a legitimate or an acceptable method of dispersal."
- "If the force used is not authorized by law or is deemed excessive, law enforcement personnel and other individuals involved, including those connected with authorizing the use of force, should be subject to disciplinary action, as well as civil and criminal liability. Law enforcement personnel should also be held liable for failing to intervene where such intervention might have prevented other personnel from using excessive force."
- "To avoid conflicts of interest, any alleged malfeasance by public security officials may necessitate investigation and follow-up by a separate independent authority. In particular, law enforcement personnel at all levels must be held responsible and accountable for any unlawful actions or omissions or for illegitimate orders to subordinates. Such accountability is crucial to maintaining trust and confidence in the respective institutions."
- "The overall approach to electoral security should reflect the principle that the ultimate objective of ensuring a safe and secure electoral environment is not to impose limitations, but to ensure that fundamental rights are not undermined and that they can be freely exercised. Security concerns should not be misused as justification for unduly restricting freedoms."
- "Activities undertaken by public security providers during an election should be construed as a public service and be guided by the interests of public order and the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms. The public-service culture in the delivery of security services should be promoted as an approach conducive to enhancing pubic confidence and to facilitating interaction and information exchange between electoral stakeholders and the security services."
- "NVT systems are intended to fulfil the same functions as paper-based or mechanical systems and must, therefore, meet the same standards that apply to these systems."
- "While this requirement has broader ramifications, one of the aspects of the principle of equality is that no voter will be able to cast more votes than another, nor will citizens be prevented from participating in voting. This means that NVT systems must prevent any person from casting more votes than is established by law and must prevent any votes from being subtracted from the system. (...) At the same time, the principle of equality means that voting should be accessible to all voters, especially for voters living within the country."
- "The gradual introduction of NVT through a period of small, regionally limited pilot projects that include testing and gradually extend NVT use over several elections can serve to identify and correct problems and may help build public confidence in the technology."
- "Furthermore, decisions to use NVT should not be made immediately applicable to the next elections, in order to allow time for feasibility studies, procurement, planning, testing, evaluation, certification, voter education, public confidence building and implementation."
- "While vendors often have a role to play in maintaining and updating NVT, due to their technical knowledge, election officials are responsible for the conduct of elections and should have full authority, oversight and accountability over technicians."
- "The technology itself should be thoroughly tested prior to election day, but testing should also be conducted on the interaction of voters, election officials and observers with the technology."
- "Certification requirements or criteria should exist prior to the introduction of the NVT, rather than being tailored to match the NVT system. These requirements should be public and in accordance with relevant national legal provisions and international standards."
- "The legal framework should stipulate that every voter, candidate and political party has the right to lodge a complaint with the competent authority when an infringement of electoral rights has occurred. Care must be taken when drafting such provisions to ensure that the right to seek protection of electoral rights is not unduly restricted to a limited number of groups, such as political parties or candidates."
- "The independence of the [media regulatory] authorities and bodies referred to in the previous paragraph should be guaranteed by ensuring that they have open and transparent appointment and dismissal procedures; have adequate human and financial resources and autonomous budget allocation; function according to transparent procedures and decision making; are open to communication with the public; have the power to take autonomous, proportionate decisions and enforce them effectively and that their decisions are subject to appeal."
- "States should adopt specific measures to protect the editorial independence and operational autonomy of public service media by limiting the influence of the State. The supervisory and management boards of public service media should be able to operate in a fully independent manner and the rules governing their composition and appointment procedures should be transparent and contain adequate checks and balances to ensure their independence."
- "States should introduce legislative provisions, or strengthen existing ones, that promote media literacy with a view to enabling individuals to access, understand, critically analyse, evaluate, use and create content through a range of legacy and digital (including social) media."
- "An independent oversight agency must be free from political pressure. To achieve this, governments can make the agency directly accountable to parliament, create a competitive and meritocratic system of public appointments, and empower it to receive, investigate and report on complaints received from members of the public. To enforce compliance effectively, the agency needs the resources to operate at speed and scale."
- "An impartial body should control campaign financing."
- "Where needed, States must also protect participants against possible abuse by non-state actors, such as interference or violence by other members of the public, counterdemonstrators and private security providers."
- "States must respect and ensure counterdemonstrations as assemblies in their own right, while preventing undue disruption of the assemblies to which they are opposed."
- "States parties must not, for example, block or hinder Internet connectivity in relation to peaceful assemblies. The same applies to geotargeted or technology-specific interference with connectivity or access to content. States should ensure that the activities of Internet service providers and intermediaries do not unduly restrict assemblies or the privacy of assembly participants."
- "Requirements for participants or organizers either to arrange for or to contribute towards the costs of policing or security, medical assistance or cleaning, or other public services associated with peaceful assemblies are generally not compatible with article 21."
- "Law enforcement officials involved in policing assemblies must respect and ensure the exercise of the fundamental rights of organizers and participants, while also protecting journalists, monitors and observers, medical personnel and other members of the public, as well as public and private property, from harm."
- "Any use of force must comply with the fundamental principles of legality, necessity, proportionality, precaution and non-discrimination applicable to articles 6 and 7 of the Covenant, and those using force must be accountable for each use of force."
- "States have an obligation to investigate effectively, impartially and in a timely manner any allegation or reasonable suspicion of unlawful use of force or other violations by law enforcement officials, including sexual or gender-based violence, in the context of assemblies. Both intentional and negligent action or inaction can amount to a violation of human rights. Individual officials responsible for violations must be held accountable under domestic and, where relevant, international law, and effective remedies must be available to victims."
- "The mandate holder has called upon States to ensure that everyone can access and use the Internet to exercise these rights, and that online associations and assemblies are facilitated in accordance with international human rights standards. The Human Rights Council has recognized that although an assembly has generally been understood as a physical gathering of people, human rights protections, including for freedom of assembly, may apply to analogous interactions taking place online."
- "Likewise, States should recognize the value of technology to facilitate people’s rights to public participation. The Special Rapporteur welcomes efforts by many governments to establish online platforms through which those interested can submit and collect signatures for petitions on government policies and legislative action."
- "In general, the blocking of entire websites is an extreme, disproportionate measure that severely limits the ability to carry out these activities, and therefore undermines the exercise of freedom of assembly and association."
- "States should promote and facilitate access to digital technologies, and should not put restrictions on their use for the exercise of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. Policies and practices should address equal access to the Internet and digital technologies, the affordability, and participation in the digital age for all, so as to bridge the digital divide. "
- "States should create an enabling legal framework for the right to peaceful assembly and association in the digital age, by: (…) (b) Repealing and amending any laws and policies that allow network disruptions and shutdowns, and refraining from adopting such laws and policies; (c) Revising and amending cybercrime, surveillance and antiterrorism laws and bringing them into compliance with international human rights norms and standards governing the right to privacy, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and the right to freedom of association."
- "Refrain from, and cease, measures such as cutting off access to the Internet and telecommunications services. Access to Internet and mobile telephony services should be maintained at all times, including during times of civil unrest. Access to and use of digital technologies during elections for assembly and association purposes should be specially respected, protected and promoted."
- "Public authorities shall act in accordance with the principle of legal certainty."
- "Public authorities shall act and perform their duties within a reasonable time."
- "Unless action needs to be taken urgently, public authorities shall provide private persons with the opportunity through appropriate means to participate in the preparation and implementation of administrative decisions which affect their rights or interests."
- "Principle of transparency 1. Public authorities shall act in accordance with the principle of transparency. 2. They shall ensure that private persons are informed, by appropriate means, of their actions and decisions which may include the publication of official documents. 3. They shall respect the rights of access to official documents according to the rules relating to personal data protection."
- "Administrative decisions shall be published in order to allow those concerned by these decisions to have an exact and comprehensive knowledge of them. Publication may be through personal notification or it may be general in nature."
- "Private persons shall be entitled to seek, directly or by way of exception, a judicial review of an administrative decision which directly affects their rights and interests."
- "The commitment of OSCE participating States to ensuring the availability of an effective remedy is of special relevance to EDR [electoral dispute resolution] as it entitles everyone to “have an effective means of redress against administrative decisions so as to guarantee respect for fundamental rights and ensure legal integrity”."
- "At a minimum, natural and legal persons whose rights are affected by administrative decisions, actions or inactions should be entitled to seek court review of these decisions. Given the public nature of the election process, consideration should also be given to allowing complaints in the public interest by essentially permitting stakeholders to challenge any unlawful action or omission in the election process."
- "To ensure proper administration of the EDR process, the election administration at both the central and local levels should be free from any political interference and guided by the fair implementation of laws. Irrespective of the composition of the election administration body, its independence should be expressed in clear and transparent proceedings."
- "Good electoral practice suggests that the right to bring forward such challenges [appeals of election results] should be granted to all candidates and voters in the respective constituency, although a reasonable quorum may be imposed for appeals against election results filed by voters."
- "A good practice for any EJS or EDRS is to establish the right of any natural or legal person to bring a challenge before an administrative or judicial body against any electoral act or decision that it considers prejudicial."
- "Violence against women in politics, as all forms of gender-based violence, constitutes a violation of human rights and is a form of discrimination against women prohibited under international human rights standards, under which States have due diligence obligations to prevent, investigate and punish acts of violence against women, whether they are perpetrated by State or non-State actors. States, therefore, have a duty to eradicate and prevent acts of violence against women in politics."
- "The Special Rapporteur makes the following recommendations to States: (a) Adopt and implement legislation prohibiting and criminalizing violence against women in politics or incorporate adequate provisions into existing laws on eliminating violence against women, consistent with international and regional human rights standards. That includes laws to prohibit sexism, harassment and other forms gender-based violence against women in politics, public life and parliament. Laws must be comprehensive enough to cover new forms of violence, including online or ICT-facilitated violence against women. "
- "States should also promote digital literacy in the use of the Internet and ICT for all, without sex- or gender-based discrimination, and promote gender equality at all levels of education, including online education, from early childhood onwards."
- "The Assembly recognises universal access to the internet as a key internet governance principle and considers that the right to internet access, with no discrimination, is an essential component of any sound policy designed to promote inclusion and support social cohesion, as well as an essential factor of sustainable democratic and socio-economic development."
- "In addition, support for initiatives promoting media and information literacy skills for accessing and managing the digital space is essential."
- "Any request, demand or other action by public authorities addressed to internet intermediaries that interferes with human rights and fundamental freedoms shall be prescribed by law, exercised within the limits conferred by law and constitute a necessary and proportionate measure in a democratic society. States should not exert pressure on internet intermediaries through non-legal means."
- "State authorities should obtain an order by a judicial authority or other independent administrative authority, whose decisions are subject to judicial review, when demanding intermediaries to restrict access to content."
- "Internet intermediaries should respect the rights of users to receive, produce and impart information, opinions and ideas. Any measures taken to restrict access (including blocking or removing content) as a result of a State order or request should be implemented using the least restrictive means."