Freedom of Opinion and Expression

A/HRC/RES/56/7View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2024.

What other versions does this mandate have?

4 versions · 2009–2024

2024A/HRC/RES/56/7Freedom of opinion and expressionLatestCompare with previous version
2022A/HRC/RES/50/15Freedom of opinion and expressionCompare with previous version
2020A/HRC/RES/44/12Freedom of opinion and expressionCompare with previous version
2009A/HRC/RES/12/16Freedom of opinion and expression

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 topics

Access to Information Freedom of Expression Freedom of Information Human Rights Litigation

What does this mandate say?

36 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms the rights contained in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in particular the right to freedom of opinion and expression, which includes the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art or through any other media of one’s choice, and the intrinsically linked rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief, peaceful assembly and association and the right to vote and take part in the conduct of public affairs;

Also reaffirms that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, in particular the right to freedom of opinion and expression;

Stresses that a democratic society depends on respect for human rights, including the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and that undue restrictions on the freedom to seek, receive and impart information undermine democracy and the rule of law by preventing efforts aimed at informing citizens, including during democratic processes and at all stages of elections, and holding public authorities accountable and exposing corruption, and also stresses the importance of promoting a safe and diverse information environment that produces accurate, trustworthy and reliable information, meaning that people can rely on the accuracy of the information they access while being exposed to a variety of ideas;

Expresses its continuing concern that violations and abuses of the right to freedom of opinion and expression continue, often with impunity, and are facilitated and aggravated by the abuse of states of emergency, the misuse of overbroad or vague laws to repress freedom of expression, and unlawful or arbitrary surveillance and/or interception of communications, including through digital surveillance technologies;

Strongly condemns the threats, reprisals, harassment and violence against, both online and offline, and the targeting, criminalization, intimidation, arbitrary detention, torture, disappearance and killing of any individual, including journalists and other media workers, artists and cultural workers, human rights defenders, including environmental human rights defenders, all women and girls, and individuals in vulnerable situations and/or belonging to marginalized groups, for exercising and advocating for their human rights and fundamental freedoms, for reporting and seeking information on human rights violations and abuses or for cooperating with national, regional and international mechanisms, including in relation to economic, social and cultural rights, which have increased and are not adequately punished, in particular where public authorities are involved in committing such acts, and including when such acts are committed in situations of crisis or armed conflict;

Expresses its deep concern at all forms of discrimination, intimidation, harassment and violence, both online and offline, that prevent women and girls from fully enjoying their human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association and the right to privacy, in accordance with obligations under international law, that hinder their full, equal, effective and meaningful participation in economic, social, cultural and political affairs and are an impediment to achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls;

Underlines that connectivity, access to information and communications technology and the promotion of open and secure digital access and digital inclusion, including through digital, media and information literacy, are critical for the enjoyment of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and to bridge the digital divides;

Calls upon all States:

To promote, protect, respect and ensure the full enjoyment of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, both online and offline, and to take all measures necessary to put an end to and to prevent violations and abuses of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, including by ensuring that relevant national legislation complies with their international human rights obligations and is effectively implemented;

To ensure that victims of violations and abuses have effective remedy, that threats and acts of violence are investigated effectively, and that those responsible are brought to justice in order to combat impunity;

To promote, protect, respect and ensure all women’s and girls’ full enjoyment of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, both online and offline, without distinction or discrimination of any kind, and to counter all violence or threats of violence faced while exercising this right;

To strengthen measures to ensure that persons with disabilities can exercise the right to freedom of expression and opinion, including the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas on an equitable basis and through all forms of communication of their choice, including through the provision of accessible and affordable formats and technologies;

To enable everyone, including journalists and other media workers, and human rights defenders to exercise their right to freedom of opinion and expression, including by taking effective measures, such as prevention and protection mechanisms, to ensure their safety both online and offline, and to protect in law and in practice the confidentiality of journalists’ sources, including whistle-blowers, in acknowledgement of the essential role of journalists and those who provide them with information in fostering government accountability and an inclusive, democratic and peaceful society;

To respect the right to freedom of opinion and expression in the media, in particular editorial independence, to promote a pluralistic approach to information and multiple points of view, inter alia by encouraging a diversity of ownership of media and of sources of information, including mass media, and by promoting the economic sustainability of media, and to refrain from the use of imprisonment or the imposition of fines for offences relating to the media where such measures are disproportionate to the gravity of the offence, and to take note of the Windhoek+30 Declaration;

To develop, adopt and implement, in consultation with civil society and journalists’ organizations, national action plans based on human rights obligations and tailored to online as well as offline issues, to advance the freedom, independence and pluralism of the media; to set up prevention and protection mechanisms for the safety of journalists, and to promote awareness about human rights standards and best practices;

To refrain from creating or disseminating false or misleading information, which can be designed and spread so as to violate or abuse human rights, including the rights to privacy and freedom of opinion and expression, and to take appropriate and proportionate measures to mitigate risks arising from disinformation, while stressing that responses to the spread of disinformation must be grounded in international human rights law;

To support relevant efforts promoting the right to freedom of opinion and expression that strengthen the resilience of societies against the impact of disinformation and misinformation at all levels, including through digital, media and information literacy, education and inclusion;

To facilitate an environment supportive of addressing disinformation through multidimensional and multi-stakeholder responses that are in compliance with international human rights law, including through enhanced cooperation with international organizations, civil society, the media, the private sector and other stakeholders;

To encourage business enterprises, including social media companies, to address disinformation while respecting human rights, including through the review of business models, in particular the role of algorithms and ranking systems in amplifying disinformation, enhancing transparency, enforcing all applicable legal protections for users and encouraging human rights due diligence in line with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights;

To adopt and implement laws and policies that ensure the freedom to seek, receive and impart information, including by:

Undertaking all necessary efforts to ensure easy, prompt, effective and practical access to government information of public interest, including online, and encouraging the proactive disclosure of information held by public entities in the broadest possible terms, including on grave violations and abuses of human rights, and ensuring that grounds for refusing the disclosure of information held by public bodies are narrowly defined;

Enacting the necessary procedures to allow equal participation in access to information and to facilitate access to and use of information;

iii

Facilitating and promoting access to and use of communications and digital technologies;

To ensure that measures for the respect of the rights or reputations of others and the protection of national security, including counter terrorism, public order and public health are in full compliance with international human rights obligations, including the principles of lawfulness, legitimacy, necessity and proportionality, and also stress the need to protect human rights, including the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the right to privacy in accordance with obligations under international law, and safeguarding personal data;

To refrain from imposing new restrictions, and to lift existing ones, on the free flow of information and ideas that are inconsistent with article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including through practices such as the use of Internet shutdowns and online censorship to intentionally prevent or disrupt access to or the dissemination of information online, the banning or closing of publications or other media and the abuse of administrative measures, criminalization and censorship, and the restriction on access to or use of information and communications technology, inter alia radio, television and the Internet;

To adopt and implement measures, such as laws and policies, that discourage strategic lawsuits against public participation against journalists, media outlets and human rights defenders, among others, and provide support for victims;

To adopt, implement and, where necessary, reform laws, regulations, policies and other measures concerning personal data and privacy protection online in order to prevent, mitigate and remedy the arbitrary or unlawful collection, retention, processing, use or disclosure of personal data on the Internet that could violate human rights and deter individuals from the full exercise of their rights to freedom of opinion and expression;

Encourages all business enterprises, including technological intermediaries and social media platforms, to meet their responsibility to respect all human rights as stated in the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and in other applicable standards, including by actively contributing to initiatives aimed at fostering respect for freedom of opinion and expression, including through avenues for remedy and legal protection for users, and by ensuring the greatest possible transparency in their policies, standards and actions that have an impact on the freedom of opinion and expression, privacy and data protection;

Encourages business enterprises, including communications service providers, to work towards enabling solutions to secure and protect the confidentiality of digital communications and transactions, including measures for encryption, pseudonymization and anonymity, and to ensure the implementation of human rights-compliant safeguards, and calls upon States not to interfere with the use of such technical solutions, with any restrictions thereon complying with States’ obligations under international human rights law, and to enact policies that protect the privacy of individuals’ digital communications;

Reaffirms that article 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides that any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law;

Stresses the importance of combating, in accordance with States’ obligations under international human rights law, all acts of incitement to discrimination, hatred, hostility or violence, including by promoting tolerance, education and dialogue;

Recognizes that the open public debate of ideas, as well as interfaith and intercultural dialogue at the local, national, and international levels, can be among the best protections against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and can play a positive role in strengthening democracy and combating national, racial or religious hatred;

Requests the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in consultation with the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, to conduct a study and to prepare a report on the impact of the use of strategic lawsuits against public participation on the enjoyment and realization of human rights, in particular the right to freedom of opinion and expression, published in formats accessible to persons with disabilities, and to present it to the Human Rights Council at its sixty-third session, and to convene before the fifty-ninth session of the Council a half-day expert workshop, with webcasting and fully accessible to persons with disabilities, that is open to the participation of States, members of civil society, academia, the private sector, journalists, other media workers, United Nations experts and all relevant stakeholders, on the impact of the use of strategic lawsuits against public participation on the enjoyment and realization of human rights and to exchange good practices and promote approaches to counter these challenges while protecting and reinforcing human rights standards;

Invites the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the working groups, representatives and special procedures of the Human Rights Council and the treaty bodies to pay attention, within the framework of their mandates, to the situation of persons whose right to freedom of opinion and expression has been violated;

Reminds States of the possibility of seeking technical assistance upon their request if needed, including from the Office of the High Commissioner, to better promote and protect the right to freedom of opinion and expression;

Decides to continue its consideration of the issue of the right to freedom of opinion and expression in accordance with its programme of work.

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