Countering Cyberbullying

A/HRC/RES/57/6View 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?

2 versions · 2022–2024

2024A/HRC/RES/57/6Countering cyberbullyingLatestCompare with previous version
2022A/HRC/RES/51/10Countering cyberbullying

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?

9 topics

Ageing Persons Anti-Discrimination Measures Corporate Social Responsibility Crime Prevention Digital Technology Education Harassment Human Rights Persons with Disabilities

What does this mandate say?

30 operative paragraphs

Affirms that human rights and fundamental freedoms must be protected, online and offline, with special regard for the rights of persons with disabilities;

Acknowledges the importance of ensuring appropriate safeguards and human oversight in the application of new and emerging digital technologies and of respecting and promoting human rights, including those of persons with disabilities, to guide relevant regulatory frameworks and legislation, and safeguards on the conception, design, use, development, further deployment and impact assessments of new and emerging digital technologies, while ensuring the meaningful participation of all stakeholders, including States, persons with disabilities and their representative organizations and families, the private sector, in particular digital technology companies, academia and civil society organizations;

Welcomes the report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on countering cyberbullying against persons with disabilities, and invites all stakeholders to consider the findings and recommendations contained in the report and their implementation;

Calls upon States:

To continue to take all appropriate measures to prevent and protect persons with disabilities from all forms of discrimination, exploitation, violence and abuse, including in digital contexts, in particular cyberbullying, by promptly responding to it in a manner that complies with international human rights law, including the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, and to provide appropriate support to victims affected by and involved in cyberbullying;

To establish well-trained and well-resourced bodies in charge of preventing, countering and addressing the adverse effects of cyberbullying, or strengthen such units if they already exist, and to provide them with adequate financial support and capacity-building and specialist training opportunities;

To promote inclusive, comprehensive and quality education and education opportunities for persons with disabilities, in particular children with disabilities, without discrimination of any kind, to foster, inter alia, digital literacy and the technical skills required to protect their privacy effectively;

To continue to promote and invest in education and training, including human rights education, as a long-term and lifelong process through which everyone learns equality, non-discrimination, non-violence, tolerance, inclusion and respect for the dignity of others and the means and methods of ensuring such respect in all societies, including in digital contexts;

To expand, as appropriate, comprehensive training across social sectors on countering cyberbullying against persons with disabilities, including in workplaces, healthcare and law enforcement, as well as in schools and in care settings for children with disabilities;

To generate and analyse statistical information and data disaggregated, where available at the national level, by gender, age, disability, race, socioeconomic status, national or ethnic origin and other characteristics relevant in national contexts, with regard to the problem of cyberbullying, as a basis upon which to elaborate and promote effective evidence-based public policies;

To encourage and incentivize research on the impact of cyberbullying on persons with disabilities, the efficacy of interventions aimed at countering cyberbullying, the risks and impacts of cyberbullying faced by persons with disabilities and the intersectional risks and impacts;

To integrate online protection into national policies to combat exploitation, violence and abuse and to adopt and strengthen, as appropriate, clear and comprehensive measures, including where relevant legislation, that are aimed at preventing and protecting persons with disabilities from cyberbullying;

To support the provision of safe, child-, gender- and disability-sensitive counselling and reporting procedures and safeguards for the rights of affected persons with disabilities, including children with disabilities, by considering, among other actions, the empowerment of a public authority to receive complaints regarding cases of cyberbullying and, where appropriate, to intercede with content hosts to request that the relevant material be promptly removed;

To take specific actions to encourage and expand reporting of cyberbullying, including through effective education and training, and to ensure that reporting platforms and channels are accessible to all persons with disabilities, including children with disabilities;

To encourage a clear and predictable legal and regulatory environment, which requires information and communications technology and other relevant industries to respect human rights, including those of persons with disabilities, by, among other actions, strengthening regulatory agencies’ responsibility for the development of standards for the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities and, in partnership with relevant civil society organizations, including organizations of persons with disabilities, providing guidance, as appropriate, to digital technology companies on the rights and needs of persons with disabilities, including the specific challenges that they face in mitigating and as a result of cyberbullying;

To involve and provide persons with disabilities with the opportunity to inclusively and meaningfully participate in the development of initiatives to prevent and address cyberbullying, including available support services and safe, accessible, age- and child-sensitive, confidential and independent counselling and reporting mechanisms;

To assist persons with disabilities in promoting inclusive and responsible digital behaviour and to inform them of available mental and physical health-care services and procedures in place to support them, where they exist, while encouraging the making of such support services available and accessible, including by providing reasonable accommodation, as appropriate;

To adopt and implement sustained, inclusive and accessible non-formal and formal education programmes, including by expanding inclusive digital literacy initiatives to support the responsible use of digital spaces and self-protection of personal data, to raise public awareness of strategies to prevent and respond to cyberbullying against persons with disabilities and to expand awareness of the tools and resources available to support those who experience or witness cyberbullying;

To continue to share national experiences and best practices for preventing and tackling cyberbullying and addressing its adverse effects;

Recognizes that the responsibility to respect the rights of persons with disabilities also applies to private actors and business enterprises, in particular private actors in the Internet sector that provide or operate services across domestic jurisdictions, and encourages them:

To adhere to the highest available international standards for safety-, privacy- and security-by-design;

To promote accessibility and inclusivity, in particular for persons with disabilities;

To put in place mechanisms and channels available for the reporting of cyberbullying that are accessible to all persons with disabilities, as well as appropriate operational grievance mechanisms;

To meaningfully engage with persons with disabilities and their representative organizations, including in the conduct of human rights due diligence, to understand their concerns around cyberbullying and the related barriers to their safe participation in digital spaces;

To continue to take part in international multi-stakeholder efforts to raise awareness of and empower all persons with disabilities with regard to online risks, and to prevent and counter cyberbullying;

Decides to include the topic of countering cyberbullying against persons with disabilities in the context of its next annual interactive debate on the rights of persons with disabilities, to be held at its fifty-eighth session;

Requests the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a report, and make it available in an accessible and Easy Read format, on countering cyberbullying against older persons, identifying recent trends and challenges, as well as applicable human rights principles, safeguards and best practices, and to present the report to the Human Rights Council at its sixty-second session;

Also requests the Office of the High Commissioner, when preparing the above-mentioned report, to closely cooperate with all relevant stakeholders, including States, international and regional organizations, relevant special procedures of the Human Rights Council, the treaty bodies, other relevant United Nations offices, agencies, funds and programmes, within their respective mandates, national human rights institutions, civil society, in particular older persons and their representative organizations, the private sector and academia;

Requests that the contributions to the report be submitted in an accessible format and that such stakeholder contributions and the report itself and an Easy Read of them be made available on the website of the Office of the High Commissioner, in an accessible format, prior to the presentation to the Human Rights Council;

Decides to remain seized of the matter.

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