The 54th session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) got underway in Geneva on 11 September. ARTICLE 19’s advocacy emphasised the need for governments to be held to account on key issues like privacy, religious hatred, disinformation, and arbitrary detention, and highlighted the human rights crises in Cambodia, Myanmar, Russia, and Ukraine.

Together with lawyers representing Dow Jones (publisher of The Wall Street Journal), we also called for the immediate release of the newspaper’s correspondent Evan Gershkovich, whom Russia’s security services detained back in March. As we set out in our address, States must help bring Evan home, and must condemn Russia for attacking and jailing journalists for doing their jobs.

On 19 September, ARTICLE 19 welcomed an important victory for transparency and access to information: the European Parliament’s Committee for Legal Affairs unanimously voted to grant the public the right to access documents for cases coming before the European Court of Justice. As the court is increasingly tasked with constitutional matters and upholding human rights, it’s vital that values of open justice prevail, and that the public has oversight of court proceedings.

‘Access to court documents is essential for transparency and accountability – both are key in establishing and maintaining trust in the judiciary and wider democratic processes. It is crucial that the public are able to access and understand the reasoning behind judicial decisions, as well as the arguments put forward during proceedings.’

– Mark Dempsey, Senior Advocacy Officer, ARTICLE 19

Find out more and join us on 28 September to mark Right to Know Day.

One year on from Mahsa Jhina Amini’s death in custody, Iran is placing even tougher restrictions on women’s rights, as well as on digital freedoms for all.

Women continue to risk harassment, torture, and arrest for expressing themselves online.The authorities have arrested women for posting selfies in which they are not wearing hijab. They are also targeting activists and influencers who declare solidarity with the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ uprising. The Iranian government is also using legislation to disable virtual private networks (VPNs) or proxies established to circumvent its censorship, and regularly shuts down mobile connections during protests, preventing people from staying safe and sharing news and information. Surveillance and the use of facial recognition technology to monitor protests has also been rife.

ARTICLE 19 calls on governments around the world to support initiatives that establish gender equality in Iran and, alongside the tech industry, to stop the sale of surveillance technology to the regime.

‘This past year has been an unprecedented milestone for freedom of expression in Iran. Many Iranians withdrew their barriers of self-censorship as the uprising appealed to popular support across Iran. Despite this bravery, this also ushered in one of the most horrific periods in Iran’s history for free expression being met with brutal repression.’

- Mahsa Alimardani, Senior Researcher for the MENA region, ARTICLE 19

In the latest episode of Techtonic (our podcast about Big Tech), Financial Times tech reporter Christina Criddle talks to host Chris Stokel-Walker about what it was like to have rogue TikTok employees tracking her phone to reveal her sources.

Subscribe to Techtonic wherever you get your podcasts to hear new episodes, released fortnightly on Mondays.

On 18 and 19 September, UN leaders met at a crucial summit to discuss next steps in achieving Agenda 2030, which some UN officials dubbed the ‘big rescue plan’ to scale up progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The meeting in New York was a key opportunity for leaders to make firm commitments on freedom of expression and access to information (SDG 16). It was time to acknowledge that only when people have a voice – when they are both informed and consulted – can they meaningfully participate in decisions that affect their own lives. ARTICLE 19 called on leaders to recognise the central role that freedom of expression plays in achieving all the SDGs – from decent education to quality healthcare, clean water, and climate action.

Unfortunately, world leaders failed us. Freedom of expression and the right to information were not included in any of their statements, and in fact were totally absent from their discussions.

Although this was a huge disappointment, ARTICLE 19 will continue to call for improvements to SDG 16. We will continue to show how only freedom of expression can empower everyone, everywhere, to speak up and demand all our other rights, which our governments have pledged to deliver by 2030.

And we will continue to remind the world that it is only when people raise their voices together that they can demand the change they – and all of us – need.

• Just a day after human rights discussions began in Geneva, the Malaysian government made a mockery of its membership to the UNHRC by allowing police to intimidate and harass farmers who were peacefully protesting against land evictions. This followed previous harassment during International Women’s Day and Labour Day protests.

• From 11–13 September, ahead of the Polish parliamentary elections on 15 October, ARTICLE 19 and partners of the Media Freedom Rapid Response travelled to Warsaw to gauge the climate for media freedom. We found that journalists in Poland face unprecedented challenges, including rising numbers of legal threats and increased political pressure and polarisation.

• ARTICLE 19 and partners are currently in Greece, following our online fact-finding mission last year. During the visit, we are meeting with leading media professionals, political officials, and state representatives to examine threats to the safety of journalists, impunity for crimes committed against them, surveillance, risks to media pluralism, and legal threats, including strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs).

• Mahsa Alimardani (Senior Researcher, ARTICLE 19) spoke to France 24 and Sky News about the first anniversary of Mahsa Jhina Amini’s death in Iran.

• Michael Caster (ARTICLE 19 Asia Digital Programme Manager) set out in Context why the Biden administration must push Vietnam over its record of digital repression.

• Barbora Bukovská (Senior Director for Law and Policy, ARTICLE 19) told EURACTIV why calls in Slovakia for a 2-week post-election moratorium on politicians speaking to the media is not only absurd but also an open threat to press freedom.
  

You can advance freedom of expression around the world by supporting ARTICLE 19!

Working in human rights is a challenging but rewarding career choice. With ARTICLE 19 you will find an international community of activists, legal specialists, and experts working together to protect basic freedoms. 

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