3619 Results
Quotes
Quotes based on international documents, law, and treaties- "Specific messaging may be required to encourage women to participate – as candidates and voters – and to clarify that they can choose how they cast their own vote."
- "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."
- "Criminal libel laws are a legacy of the colonial past and have no place in modern democratic societies. They should be repealed."
- "State regulation of social media should focus on enforcing transparency, due process rights for users and due diligence on human rights by companies, and on ensuring that the independence and remit of the regulators are clearly defined, guaranteed and limited by law."
- "States should adopt strong data protection laws and update electoral and other relevant laws to limit the pervasive tracking and targeting of individuals and their activities online."
- "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 are obliged to respect human rights under international human rights law. Although digital platforms are private actors, they have a far-reaching impact on human rights in the public space. As such, they are accountable not only to their users but to society at large."
- "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."
- "Companies should provide clear and meaningful information about the parameters of their algorithms or recommender systems and ensure that those systems enable users to receive a diversity of viewpoints by default while also enabling them to choose the variables that shape their online experience."
- "Users must have proper recourse. Companies should establish internal appeals mechanisms for a broader range of content moderation decisions and types of content, such as coordinated inauthentic behaviour."
- "In keeping with these foundations, and with reference to the rules outlined above, States should at a minimum do the following in addressing online hate speech: (a) Strictly define the terms in their laws that constitute prohibited content under article 20 (2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and article 4 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and resist criminalizing such speech except in the gravest situations, such as advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence, and adopt the interpretations of human rights law contained in the Rabat Plan of Action."
- "In keeping with these foundations, and with reference to the rules outlined above, States should at a minimum do the following in addressing online hate speech: (...) (b) Review existing laws or develop legislation on hate speech to meet the requirements of legality, necessity and proportionality, and legitimacy, and subject such rule-making to robust public participation."
- "In addition to the principles adopted in earlier reports and in keeping with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, all companies in the ICT sector should: (…) (c) Define the category of content that they consider to be hate speech with reasoned explanations for users and the public and approaches that are consistent across jurisdictions."
- "In addition to the principles adopted in earlier reports and in keeping with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, all companies in the ICT sector should: (…) (f) As part of an overall effort to address hate speech, develop tools that promote individual autonomy, security and free expression, and involve de-amplification, de-monetization, education, counter-speech, reporting and training as alternatives, when appropriate, to the banning of accounts and the removal of content."
- "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."
- "In addition to the advantages attached to PR systems generally, List PR makes it more likely that the representatives of minority cultures/groups will be elected. When, as is often the case, voting behaviour dovetails with a society’s cultural or social divisions, then List PR electoral systems can help to ensure that the legislature includes members of both majority and minority groups."
- "PR electoral systems are almost always more friendly to the election of women than plurality/majority systems. In essence, parties are able to use the lists to promote the advancement of women politicians and allow voters the space to elect women candidates while still basing their choice on other policy concerns than gender. As noted above, in single-member districts most parties are encouraged to put up a ‘most broadly acceptable’ candidate, and that person is seldom a woman."
- "Again, electoral systems which use reasonably large district magnitudes encourage parties to nominate candidates from minorities on the basis that balanced tickets will increase their electoral chances. A very low threshold, or the complete elimination of a formal threshold, in PR systems can also facilitate the representation of hitherto under-represented or unrepresented groups. In plurality/ majority systems in particular, seats are sometimes set aside in the legislature for minorities and communal groups."
- "Reserved seats can be used to ensure the representation of specific minority groups in the legislature."
- "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."
- "Wherever possible, whether in divided or relatively homogeneous societies, the electoral system should err on the side of including all significant interests in the legislature. Regardless of whether minorities are based on ideological, ethnic, racial, linguistic, regional or religious identities, the exclusion of significant shades of opinion from legislatures, particularly in the developing world, has often been catastrophically counterproductive."
- "The way in which a particular electoral system is chosen is also extremely important in ensuring its overall legitimacy. A process in which most or all groups are included, including the electorate at large, is likely to result in significantly broader acceptance of the end result than a decision perceived as being motivated by partisan self-interest alone. Although partisan considerations are unavoidable when discussing the choice of electoral systems, broad cross-party and public support for any institution is crucial to its being accepted and respected."
- "International election observation has the potential to enhance the integrity of election processes, by deterring and exposing irregularities and fraud and by providing recommendations for improving electoral processes."
- "An international election observation mission therefore should not be organized unless the country holding the election takes the following actions: (…) b. Guarantees unimpeded access of the international election observer mission to all stages of the election process and all election technologies, including electronic technologies and the certification processes for electronic voting and other technologies, without requiring election observation missions to enter into confidentiality or other nondisclosure agreements concerning technologies or election processes, and recognizes that international election observation missions may not certify technologies as acceptable."
- "An international election observation mission therefore should not be organized unless the country holding the election takes the following actions: (…) c. Guarantees unimpeded access to all persons concerned with election processes, including: i electoral officials at all levels, upon reasonable requests, ii members of legislative bodies and government and security officials whose functions are relevant to organizing genuine democratic elections, iii all of the political parties, organizations and persons that have sought to compete in the elections (including those that qualified, those that were disqualified and those that withdrew from participating) and those that abstained from participating, iv news media personnel, and v all organizations and persons that are interested in achieving genuine democratic elections in the country."
- "An international election observation mission therefore should not be organized unless the country holding the election takes the following actions: (…) d. Guarantees freedom of movement around the country for all members of the international election observer mission."
- "An international election observation mission therefore should not be organized unless the country holding the election takes the following actions: (…) e. Guarantees the international election observer mission’s freedom to issue without interference public statements and reports concerning its findings and recommendations about election related processes and developments."
- "An international election observation mission therefore should not be organized unless the country holding the election takes the following actions: (…) f. Guarantees that no governmental, security or electoral authority will interfere in the selection of individual observers or other members of the international election observation mission or attempt to limit its numbers."
- "Citizens have an internationally recognized right to associate and a right to participate in governmental and public affairs in their country. These rights may be exercised through nongovernmental organizations monitoring all processes related to elections and observing procedures, including among other things the functioning of electronic and other electoral technologies inside polling stations, counting centers and other electoral facilities, as well as the transport of ballots and other sensitive materials. International election observation missions should evaluate and report on whether domestic nonpartisan election monitoring and observation organizations are able, on a nondiscriminatory basis, to conduct their activities without undue restrictions or interference."
- "Non-partisan observation and monitoring of elections by citizen organizations is part of participating in public affairs, which “relates to legislative, executive and administrative powers” and “covers all aspects of public administration, and the formulation and implementation of policy….”(UNHRC General Comment 25, paragraph 5.) Non-partisan election observation and monitoring by citizen organizations exercises the right of association that is central to the functioning of nongovernmental organizations, as well as the right to seek, receive and impart information that is vital to transparency and is included in the freedom of expression protected by articles 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the ICCPR."
- "Non-partisan election observation and monitoring by citizen organizations is the mobilization of citizens in a politically neutral, impartial and non-discriminatory manner to exercise their right of participation in public affairs by witnessing and reporting on electoral developments through: independent, systematic and comprehensive evaluation of legal frameworks, institutions, processes and the political environment related to elections; impartial, accurate and timely analysis of findings; the characterization of the findings based on the highest ethical standards for impartiality and accuracy; the offering of appropriate recommendations for obtaining genuine democratic elections; and advocating for improvements in legal frameworks for elections, their implementation through electoral related administration and removal of impediments to full citizen participation in electoral and political processes."
- "The lack of adequate security for deployment of observers/monitors or not being provided accreditation and access to electoral facilities or other factors may prevent systematic scrutiny of election processes."
- "Business enterprises should respect human rights. This means that they should avoid infringing on the human rights of others and should address adverse human rights impacts with which they are involved."
- "The responsibility to respect human rights requires that business enterprises: (a) Avoid causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts through their own activities, and address such impacts when they occur; (b) Seek to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to their operations, products or services by their business relationships, even if they have not contributed to those impacts."
- "The responsibility of business enterprises to respect human rights applies to all enterprises regardless of their size, sector, operational context, ownership and structure. Nevertheless, the scale and complexity of the means through which enterprises meet that responsibility may vary according to these factors and with the severity of the enterprise’s adverse human rights impacts."
- "In order to meet their responsibility to respect human rights, business enterprises should have in place policies and processes appropriate to their size and circumstances, including: 15 (a) A policy commitment to meet their responsibility to respect human rights; (b) A human rights due diligence process to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how they address their impacts on human rights; (c) Processes to enable the remediation of any adverse human rights impacts they cause or to which they contribute."
- "In order to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how they address their adverse human rights impacts, business enterprises should carry out human rights due diligence. The process should include assessing actual and potential human rights impacts, integrating and acting upon the findings, tracking responses, and communicating how impacts are addressed."
- "In order to account for how they address their human rights impacts, business enterprises should be prepared to communicate this externally, particularly when concerns are raised by or on behalf of affected stakeholders. Business enterprises whose operations or operating contexts pose risks of severe human rights impacts should report formally on how they address them."
- "As part of their duty to protect against business-related human rights abuse, States must take appropriate steps to ensure, through judicial, administrative, legislative or other appropriate means, that when such abuses occur within their territory and/or jurisdiction those affected have access to effective remedy."
- "Article 29 does not provide for any reasonable restriction or exception for any group of persons with disabilities. Therefore, an exclusion of the right to vote on the basis of a perceived or actual psychosocial or intellectual disability, including a restriction pursuant to an individualized assessment, constitutes discrimination on the basis of disability, within the meaning of article 2 of the Convention."
- "Accordingly, the Committee concludes that article XXIII, paragraph 6, of the Fundamental Law, which allows courts to deprive persons with intellectual disability of their right to vote and to be elected, is in breach of article 29 of the Convention, as is article 26, paragraph 2, of the Transitional Provisions of the Fundamental Law."
- "Accordingly, the Committee is of the view that, by depriving the authors of their right to vote, based on a perceived or actual intellectual disability, the State party has failed to comply with its obligations under article 29 of the Convention, read alone and in conjunction with article 12 of the Convention."
- "The Committee recalls that, under article 29 of the Convention, the State party is required to adapt its voting procedures, by ensuring that they are “appropriate, accessible and easy to understand and use”, and, where necessary, allowing persons with disabilities, upon their request, assistance in voting. It is by so doing that the State party will ensure that persons with intellectual disabilities cast a competent vote, on an equal basis with others, while guaranteeing voting secrecy."
- "In general: the State party is under an obligation to take measures to prevent similar violations in the future, including by: (…) (ii) Enacting laws that recognize, without any “capacity assessment”, the right to vote for all persons with disabilities, including those with more need of support, and that provide for adequate assistance and reasonable accommodation in order for persons with disabilities to be able to exercise their political rights."
- "People with disabilities should therefore be able to exercise their right to vote and participate in political and public life as elected representatives on an equal basis with other citizens."