On March 7, on the sidelines of the 58th session of the Human Rights Council, ISHR co -gathered a parallel event on the protection of human rights defenders against new and emerging forms of violations of rights facilitated by technology in the presence of defenders, representatives of the State and NGOs.
Emerging technologies have become a fundamental tool for human rights defenders in order to carry out their activities and allow their voices to reach borders, often at high risk for their safety. However, these new tools can also have a negative impact on the enjoyment of human rights and represent serious threats and challenges for human rights defenders.
In these lines, the secondary event organized a panel discussed the reality and the challenges that defenders face in the context of new and emerging technologies. It allowed defenders to work in the field of digital rights to highlight their specific protection needs.
With the moderation by Ishr’s Urises Quero, the panel was made up of Carla Vitoria of the Progressive Communication Association, Lucía Gómez Vicente of Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems, and Nancy Awad of first -line defenders, with opening remarks by Ambassador Tormod C. Endresen, Permanent representative of Norway. The panel also included a video message from Gerald Kankya from the business and human Rights Resources Center.
Unfortunately, due to the recent government funds and recent funds, many defenders of local organizations have not been able to join. This, in addition to the financial obstacles imposed by the UN, which has made it impossible to distance remote.
Carla Vitoria has shared information on the links between digital authoritarianism and offline violence. Not only are surveillance technologies and closings on the Internet are used to attack human rights, but they also distribute disinformation leading to threats of rape, body shame and sexualized disinformation, but Vitoria noted. In fact, while current forms of reprisals used to silence the defenders, communities like the LGBTQIA + defenders are faced with threats of corrective rape in a similar way to the defenders of reproductive rights which are also confronted with stigma campaigns, she added.
Haine crimes and online violence lead to offline attacks. Companies and companies have failed to deal with these threats. Worse, their policies are generally unregulated mechanisms to moderate moderate threats of less effective hatred. According to the association for progressive communication, indigenous communities fighting for rights and land are attacked directly on their online identity. In fact, digital authoritarianism is also linked to extraction, the use of people’s data, the accumulation of information and monitoring.
Nancy Awad stressed that although there are positive aspects for digital spaces such as improving the ability of defenders to reach the world public, documenting human rights violations to raise awareness and keeping governments and responsible societies, these are overshadowed as authoritarianism, state repression takes place through criminalization, surveillance, internet referees digital, the repression of disinformation and the management of dissinformations and information.
Nancy Awad also underlined the case of Palestinian activists who are attacked, criticized under false information, designated as terrorists; And completely erase their content several times.
In a video message, Gerald Kankya has discussed the many ways that defenders are attacked through digital tools and the way in which state responses to these actions are often dull or even nonexistent, including the involvement of technological companies in these reprehensible acts. Kankya shared the example of the largest telecommunications operator Kenyan Safaricom, who was involved in the repression of youth demonstrations in 2024 in Kenya, during which he transferred information on the militants drawn from his SIM cards to the State, leading to repression.
Kankya explained how governments around the world have used PEGASUS spy software in the NSO group to facilitate human rights violations and how media and civil society surveys documented its use in several African countries. He also underlined a 2023 report from the Institute of Development Studies which revealed that African governments collectively spend more than a billion dollars a year on digital surveillance technologies to monitor their own citizens, often in violation of constitutional, international and national laws.
Lucía Gómez underlined the continuous historical model where those who fight for justice have always been attacked. She approached dichotomy that, even if we consider technologies to be dangerous, there is enormous work potential on human rights in these spaces. In fact, a “Tech for Good” approach must be implemented. Politicians must be focused on man and the victim allowing sustainable response mechanisms, explained Gómez.
This secondary event came at a crucial time while 197 organizations have published a open letter In States, exhorting them to present a strong resolution on human rights defenders and digital tools, to be adopted during this session.
In the letter, civil society urges states to ensure the resolution which addresses the protection of human rights defenders against emerging risks resulting from technological trends and online spaces, as identified in the Declaration +25.
In the same vein, the panelists have shared their reflections on what resolutions should include: the human factor in the use of technology, the adequate assessment and understanding of gaps to choose good adjustment technology, the state obligations to provide tailor -made knowledge of risks, technological programs to strengthen localized capacity and other practices to increase enlightened decision -making.
The resolution must also meet the needs of human rights defenders in conflict, the use of artificial intelligence in fragile contexts and the need for companies to have responsibilities under international law towards human rights defenders.
ISHR shared a video of testimonies from human rights defenders collected in Rightscon 2025 in Taiwan, where defenders underlined the need for resolution to fight against hatred speeches and disinformation, deep sexualized counterfeits, access to information and privacy in the context of conflicts and war, principles of human rights and A judicial control, by thwarting the crimes of Cyber and incorporating an attic and a daily life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKPUL-8-JBS
This side event was co-sponsored by access now, Amnesty International, Asian Forum for Human Rights & Development (Forum-Asia), Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Business and Human Rights Resource Center (BHRRC), Defenddefenders (East and Horn of Africa HRD Project), Front Line Defenders, Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR), HIRIDOC, International Center for Not-For-Forit Law (ICNL), International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersexic Association (ILGA World), International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), Peace Brigades International, Privacy International, International Protection, Regional Coalition of WHRDS in South West Asia and (Coalition Whrd Mena).