642 Results
Quotes
Quotes based on international documents, law, and treaties- "Force should only be applied to the minimum extent necessary, following to the principles of restraint, proportionality, minimization of damage and the preservation of life."
- "Any abuse of powers and violations of the law by state officials, including instances of use of disproportionate force or unlawful dispersal of assemblies, should lead to prompt and independent investigations."
- "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."
- "Force must not be used unless strictly unavoidable, and where employed must be limited in accordance with the requirements imposed by international human rights law, including international norms and standards on the use of force."
- "Individuals must be free to participate in shaping decisions that will effect them and in policy formation during times of crisis as at other times; public participation is crucial to surmount any crisis, and civil society must be regarded as an essential partner of governments in this endeavor."
- "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."
- "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."
- "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."
- "To create enabling environments for freedom of expression, States should: a. Take immediate and meaningful action to protect the safety of journalists and others who are attacked for exercising their right to freedom of expression and to end impunity for such attacks."
- "Ensure that regulatory bodies for the media are independent, operate transparently and are accountable to the public, and respect the principle of limited scope of regulation, and provide appropriate oversight of private actors."
- "Respect international human rights standards, including those of transparency, when seeking to regulate or influence expression on online media platforms."
- "Devote significantly greater attention and resources to media-, information- and digital literacy, over the short- and long-term, to address the particular literacy challenges of the modern digital communications environment."
- "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."
- "In order to protect against unaccountable private domination of the environment for freedom of expression, we urge the development of the following: (…) e. Human rights sensitive solutions to the challenges caused by disinformation, including the growing possibility of “deep fakes”, in publicly accountable and targeted ways, using approaches that meet the international law standards of legality, legitimacy of objective, and necessity and proportionality. "
- "The Human Rights Council, (…) 9. Urges States to do their utmost to prevent violence, intimidation, threats and attacks against journalists and media workers, including by: (a) Increasing and accelerating efforts to create and maintain, in law and in practice, a safe and enabling environment for journalists to perform their work independently and without undue interference."
- "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."
- "General prohibitions on the dissemination of information based on vague and ambiguous ideas, including “false news” or “non-objective information”, are incompatible with international standards for restrictions on freedom of expression, as set out in paragraph 1(a), and should be abolished."
- "States have a positive obligation to promote a free, independent and diverse communications environment, including media diversity, which is a key means of addressing disinformation and propaganda."
- "It is imperative that everyone involved in killings of, attacks on and ill-treatment of journalists and other media actors be brought to justice."
- "The state shall not only (passively) respect the exercise of the freedom of association, but shall also actively protect and facilitate this exercise. The state shall protect political parties and individuals in their freedom of association from interference by non-state actors, inter alia by legislative means. "
- "The implementation of legislation, policies and practices relevant to political parties shall be undertaken by competent state authorities, including government bodies and courts, that act in an impartial manner and are free from partisan influence, both in law and in practice. Such authorities shall also ensure that political parties, as well as the public at large, have relevant information as to their procedures and functioning, which shall be easy to understand and comply with."
- "Minimum thresholds should not be considered illegitimate or discriminatory, as long as they are applied objectively and equally, and allow for the candidacy of independent candidates. However, such thresholds must be enacted at a level low enough so as not to preclude political pluralism or threaten the representative nature of the legislature."
- "Sanctions should be applied against political parties found to be in violation of relevant laws and regulations and should be dissuasive in nature. Moreover, in addition to being enforceable, sanctions must at all times be objective, effective, and proportionate to the specific violation."
- "Whichever body is tasked to review the party’s financial reports, effective measures should be taken in legislation and in practice to ensure the respective body’s independence from political pressure and commitment to impartiality. Such independence and impartiality are fundamental to its proper functioning."
- "The obligations to promote the enjoyment of the right to freedom of opinion and expression require that States guarantee the transparency of all aspects of political and electoral processes, and should particularly put in place measures to: (...) (c) Ensure that the implementation of political financing regulations is overseen, monitored and enforced by the electoral authorities, the judiciary and other independent bodies."
- "In the context of promoting free expression during electoral processes, States should: (b) Guarantee the safety of journalists and media workers; legislative and policy measures must be adopted to prevent attacks against journalists and to eradicate impunity in relation to episodes of violence and intimidation."
- "States should repeal any law that criminalizes or unduly restricts expression, online or offline."
- "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."
- "States should refrain from adopting models of regulation where government agencies, rather than judicial authorities, become the arbiters of lawful expression. They should avoid delegating responsibility to companies as adjudicators of content, which empowers corporate judgment over human rights values to the detriment of users."
- "Finding appropriate responses to disinformation is difficult, not least because the concept is undefined and open to abuse, and because the size and nature of the problem is contested in the absence of sufficient data and research. State responses have often been problematic and heavy handed and had a detrimental impact on human rights."
- "There is clear evidence that robust public information regimes and independent journalism are strong antidotes to disinformation."
- "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."
- "Ensuring the safety of journalists online and offline and ending impunity for threats, intimidation, harassment, attacks and killings of journalists, including women journalists, bloggers, cartoonists and human rights defenders is key to restoring confidence in the public sphere as a safe place for democratic deliberations."
- "Media information and digital literacy empowers people and builds their resilience against disinformation and misinformation, as noted recently by the General Assembly."
- "Companies should adopt clear, narrowly defined content and advertising policies on disinformation and misinformation that are in line with international human rights law and after consultation with all relevant stakeholders. (...) They should ensure that all policies are easily accessible and understandable by users and are enforced consistently, taking into account the particular contexts in which they are applied."
- "Finally, the system should, as far as possible, act in an electorally neutral manner towards all parties and candidates; it should not openly discriminate against any political grouping."
- "Different kinds of electoral system also result in different relationships between individual candidates and their supporters. In general, systems which make use of single-member electoral districts, such as most plurality/majority systems, are seen as encouraging individual candidates to see themselves as the delegates of particular geographical areas and beholden to the interests of their local electorate. By contrast, systems which use large multi-member districts, such as most PR systems, are more likely to deliver representatives whose primary loyalty lies with their party on national issues. "
- "Effective and sustainable electoral system designs are more likely to be easily understood by the voter and the politician. Too much complexity can lead to misunderstandings, unintended consequences, and voter mistrust of the results."