1726 Results
Quotes
Quotes based on international documents, law, and treaties- "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."
- "State Parties acknowledge the need to eliminate discrimination against girls and young women according to obligations stipulated in various international, regional and national human rights conventions and instruments designed to protect and promote women's rights. In this regard, they shall: (...) b) Ensure that girls and young women are able to participate actively, equally and effectively with boys at all levels of social, educational, economic, political, cultural, civil life and leadership, as well as scientific endeavours. "
- "State Parties shall take the following measures to promote active youth participation in society: They shall: a) Guarantee the participation of youth in parliament and other decision-making bodies in accordance with the prescribed laws; b) Facilitate that creation or strengthening of platforms for youth participation in decision-making at local, national, regional, and continental levels of governance; c) Ensure equal access of young men and young women to participate in decision-making and in fulfilling civil duties. "
- "The following principles should be applied in all policies and activities concerning young people: (…) Participation: recognising that all young people are a resource to society, all policies and activities concerning young people should uphold young people's right to participate in the development, implementation and follow-up of policies affecting them by means of meaningful participation of young people and youth organisations. In this context, policies should be built in recognition of the changes brought about by digital communication affecting democratic and civic participation."
- "The Council of the European Union and the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States meeting within the Council invite Member States and the European Commission, within their respective fields of competence, to: - Encourage and promote inclusive democratic participation of all young people in society and democratic processes; - Actively engage young people, youth organisations and other organisers of youth work in the development, implementation and evaluation of policies affecting the lives of young people on local, regional, national and European level."
- "The Council of the European Union and the Representatives of the Governments of the Member States meeting within the Council invite Member States and the European Commission, within their respective fields of competence, to: (...) - Explore and promote the use of innovative and alternative forms of democratic participation, e.g. digital democracy tools and facilitate access in order to support youth participation in democratic life and engage young people in an inclusive way, whilst being aware that some young people do not have access to the internet and digital technologies, or the skills to use them."
- "The collection of personal information should be limited to information that is relevant to the purposes of collection and any such information should be obtained by lawful and fair means, and where appropriate, with notice to, or consent of, the individual concerned."
- "Personal information collected should be used only to fulfill the purposes of collection and other compatible or related purposes except: a) with the consent of the individual whose personal information is collected; b) when necessary to provide a service or product requested by the individual; or, c) by the authority of law and other legal instruments, proclamations and pronouncements of legal effect."
- "Where appropriate, individuals should be provided with clear, prominent, easily understandable, accessible and affordable mechanisms to exercise choice in relation to the collection, use and disclosure of their personal information. "
- "Personal data shall be: (...) (b) collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes; further processing for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes shall, in accordance with Article 89(1), not be considered to be incompatible with the initial purposes (‘purpose limitation’)."
- "Personal data shall be: (...) (c) adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed (‘data minimisation’)."
- "Processing shall be lawful only if and to the extent that at least one of the following applies: (a) the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes."
- "There should be limits to the collection of personal data and any such data should be obtained by lawful and fair means and, where appropriate, with the knowledge or consent of the data subject."
- "Personal data should be relevant to the purposes for which they are to be used, and, to the extent necessary for those purposes, should be accurate, complete and kept up to date."
- "The General Assembly (...) 6. Calls upon all States: (...) (e) To provide individuals whose right to privacy has been violated by unlawful or arbitrary surveillance with access to an effective remedy, consistent with international human rights obligations."
- "The General Assembly (...) 7. Calls upon business enterprises: (...) (c) To implement administrative, technical and physical safeguards to ensure that data are processed lawfully and to ensure that such processing is limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes of the processing and that the legitimacy of such purposes, as well as the accuracy, integrity and confidentiality of the processing, is ensured."
- "A government may allocate additional funds to programmes benefitting historically disadvantaged groups in order to enable such groups to enjoy their rights on a par with others in society."
- "Further, in order to alleviate the effects of past discrimination and to enhance future participation, it is appropriate for the legal framework to include special electoral rules and voting arrangements for national minorities."
- "It may be appropriate to require political parties and other nominating organizations to put forward a minimum number of candidates of each gender, with reasonable chances to be elected."
- "The legal framework should prohibit the collection, use or dissemination of personal data or information in any manner for any purpose other than the exercise of suffrage rights. In particular, care should be given to provisions that relate to fingerprints, photographs and personal identification numbers, as well as to ethnicity or other factors that could lead to discrimination or place the voter at risk of personal harm."
- "An invalid signature should not invalidate other signatures or the signature list."
- "A credible process of signature verification would include the verification of all signatures submitted up to the point when the minimum number of verified signatures required for registration has been reached. Once the minimum number of signatures has been established, the political party or candidate should be registered."
- "Observers should be given unimpeded access to all levels of election administration at all times, effective access to other public offices with relevance to the election process, and the ability to meet with all political formations, the media, civil society and voters. The law should provide clear and precise provisions establishing the rights of observers to inspect documents, attend meetings and observe election activities at all levels, as well as to obtain copies of decisions, protocols, tabulations, minutes and other electoral documents, at all levels."
- "Personal data that are processed must be adequate, relevant, correct and, if necessary, up to date; all reasonable measures must be taken to complete, correct, block or erase data that are incomplete or incorrect."
- "The law must require that the appropriate election-administration body or court consider, determine and render a prompt decision on a complaint. A principle common to many legal systems is that “justice delayed is justice denied”."
- "In the context of access to information, Member States should: (a) Enact clear laws, regulations and policies that guarantee the proactive disclosure of information held by public bodies, including those exercising public functions, and provide a general right to request and receive such information, subject only to clearly and narrowly defined exceptions in accordance with international human rights law and standards; guarantee the right to access information held by private bodies where it is essential to the exercise or protection of human rights; and provide a right to appeal to an independent body for any refusal to disclose information."
- "Member States should: (…) d. ensure that the various forms of hate crime, including acts of violence, hate speech and public incitement to hatred and violence, are prohibited under national law, and take measures to prevent and combat cases of hate crime and hate speech, in particular by carrying out effective investigations with the aim of ending impunity."
- "The European Parliament, (…) 3. Is deeply concerned that the closing down of civil society space in developing countries is being carried out in increasingly complex and sophisticated ways, which are harder to tackle and imposed through legislation, taxation, funding limitations, increased bureaucracy, reporting and banking requirements, the criminalisation and stigmatisation of CSO representatives, defamation, all forms of harassment, online repression and internet access limitations, censorship, arbitrary detention, gender-based violence, torture and assassination, in particular in conflict-stricken states; insists on the necessity of tackling governmental and non-governmental tactics of marginalising critical voices."
- "States have a positive obligation to foster a favourable environment for freedom of expression, offline and online, in which everyone can exercise their right to freedom of expression and participate in public debate effectively, irrespective of whether their views are received favourably by the State or others. Such an environment encompasses the rights to privacy and data protection, and the right to access information on issues of public interest held by public bodies that is necessary for the exercise of the right to freedom of expression."
- "States should encourage social media, media, search and recommendation engines and other intermediaries which use algorithms, along with media actors, regulatory authorities, civil society, academia and other relevant stakeholders to engage in open, independent, transparent and participatory initiatives that: (...) – implement the principle of privacy by design in respect of any automated data processing techniques and ensure that such techniques are fully compliant with the relevant privacy and data protection laws and standards."
- "States should make particular efforts, taking advantage of technological developments, to ensure that the broadest possible diversity of media content, including general interest content, is accessible to all groups in society, particularly those which may have specific needs or face disadvantage or obstacles when accessing media content, such as minority groups, refugees, children, the elderly and persons with cognitive or physical disabilities. This implies that such media content should be made available in different languages and in suitable formats and that it should be easy to find and use."
- "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."
- "Temporary special measures must be discontinued when their desired results have been achieved and sustained for a period of time."
- "The term “measures” encompasses a wide variety of legislative, executive, administrative and other regulatory instruments, policies and practices, such as outreach or support programmes; allocation and/or reallocation of resources; preferential treatment; targeted recruitment, hiring and promotion; numerical goals connected with time frames; and quota systems. "
- "Transparency International recommends that governments make the following four commitments: Apply comprehensive disclosure regulations to the finances of parties and candidates and ensure that all information is regularly published via a single online portal."
- "Transparency International recommends that governments make the following four commitments: (...) Introduce limits on sources and amounts of donations to political parties and candidates, and encourage a broad base of donors, to strike a healthy balance between public and private funding."
- "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."
- "Campaign funding should become public at least prior to the referendum."
- "The use of public resources by the authorities for campaigning purposes must be prohibited. Political parties and their representatives, including those who are elected representatives or hold a public office, are entitled to take actively part in the campaign. Particular duties of reserve may apply to the persons belonging to the public authority responsible for the organisation or supervision of the referendum."
- "An impartial body should control campaign financing."
- "Everyone enjoying electoral rights is entitled to sign a popular initiative or request for a referendum."
- "Everyone enjoying electoral rights must be entitled to collect signatures. This right may be extended to other categories of people."
- "The absolute minimum period between calling a referendum and polling day should be four weeks. A considerably longer period of preparation is desirable, however, particularly if the topic has not already been subject to widespread public discussion. The campaign period must not be shorter than for regular elections."
- "Everyone has the right of peaceful assembly: citizens and non-citizens alike. It may be exercised by, for example, foreign nationals, migrants (documented or undocumented), asylum seekers, refugees and stateless persons."
- "Article 21 of the Covenant protects peaceful assemblies wherever they take place: outdoors, indoors and online; in public and private spaces; or a combination thereof. Such assemblies may take many forms, including demonstrations, protests, meetings, processions, rallies, sit-ins, candlelit vigils and flash mobs. They are protected under article 21 whether they are stationary, such as pickets, or mobile, such as processions or marches."
- "Although the exercise of the right of peaceful assembly is normally understood to pertain to the physical gathering of persons, article 21 protection also extends to remote participation in, and organization of, assemblies, for example online."
- "Peaceful assemblies are often organized in advance, allowing time for the organizers to notify the authorities to make the necessary preparations. However, spontaneous assemblies, which are typically direct responses to current events, whether coordinated or not, are equally protected under article 21."
- "Collective civil disobedience or direct action campaigns can be covered by article 21, provided that they are non-violent."
- "There is not always a clear dividing line between assemblies that are peaceful and those that are not, but there is a presumption in favour of considering assemblies to be peaceful. "
- "The conduct of specific participants in an assembly may be deemed violent if authorities can present credible evidence that, before or during the event, those participants are inciting others to use violence, and such actions are likely to cause violence; that the participants have violent intentions and plan to act on them; or that violence on their part is imminent. Isolated instances of such conduct will not suffice to taint an entire assembly as non-peaceful, but where it is manifestly widespread within the assembly, participation in the gathering as such is no longer protected under article 21."