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Panel Discussion on the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights in the Context of Peaceful Protests - Statement by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, 29 September 2021

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48th session of the Human Rights Council

Mr. Vice-President,
Excellencies,
Distinguished participants,

It is a pleasure to join you today.

It has been ten years since the last Human Rights Council panel on human rights in the context of peaceful protests, held during the Arab spring.

Different than the regional events that provided the backdrop for the previous discussion, what we are witnessing now is global. In the past few years, mass protests across the world have united impressive numbers of people to collectively express their grievances, their demands for change and their hopes for the future.

This is a powerful reminder that being able to come together, to freely express one’s views and to participate in the decisions that affect people and planet is a universal human desire.

It is also a human right.

A right that stands at the very core of democracy and democratic societies. And one that is instrumental for the achievement of other human rights.

At this crucial time, with both COVID-19 and the accelerating impacts of climate change exacerbating inequalities and threatening people's rights, lives and livelihoods in every country, Governments need truthful feedback about the measures they are taking.

They need ideas – and criticism too – from the broadest possible range of people. Peaceful protests provide key insights into and information about people’s real challenges and needs. The public interplay of claims, views and feedback between people and their representatives is essential to prompt and effective policymaking that is genuinely responsive to the aspirations of individuals, communities and societies as a whole.

And I say this as a former head of Government.

But despite that, in its resolution last year, the Human Rights Council gave a disturbing diagnosis of the current situation, calling attention to many human rights violations occurring in the context of peaceful protests.

They included extrajudicial or summary executions, arbitrary arrests and detention; enforced disappearances and torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

In addition, the resolution referenced the criminalization, in States in all parts of the world, of individuals and groups solely for having organized or taken part in peaceful protests -- or even for just having observed, monitored or recorded them. These people have on occasion been designated “threats to national security”.

The Council also pointed to new and emerging challenges, such as the unlawful or arbitrary surveillance of protestors, both in physical spaces and online, including through the use of digital tracking tools.

In addition, it noted how the misuse of new technologies have prevented people’s access to information at key political moments, with an impact on the ability to organize and carry out assemblies

Excellencies,

The protection of human rights in the context of peaceful protests therefore continues to be a priority for my office. We have been assisting States in the implementation of their human rights obligations and have developed several sets of policy guidelines in this regard. They include the Guidance on Less-Lethal Weapons in Law Enforcement; the Guidelines for States on the effective implementation of the right to participate in public affairs; and the report on the impact of new technologies on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of assemblies.

Human rights monitoring bodies have also produced a considerable amount of decisions, recommendations and comments that can help States implement their obligations under international human rights law.

In particular, I wish to point out the thematic reports of the UN Special Rapporteur on Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, as well as the UN Human Rights Committee’s General Comments no 36 on the right to life and 37 on the right of peaceful assemblies. Together, these General Comments provide an authoritative interpretation by the Committee of the international norms applicable to peaceful protests.

We will continue monitoring and reporting on the issue, and for my own part I will continue to publicly raise violations and abuses in this area.

Distinguished participants,

In discussing these issues, I also wish to specifically commend the work of journalists and other members of civil society who play an essential role in the protection and promotion of human rights in the context of peaceful protests. Often exposing themselves to significant risks, they carry out monitoring of protests, amplifying messages, and also help to both protect protesters and to mobilise people, in contexts of often-shrinking civic space.

Their vital role and contributions in enabling peaceful protest must be recognised and celebrated - not impaired.

I trust this panel discussion will provide recommendations on further steps States, individually and through cooperation, can take to better respect, protect and promote human rights in the context of peaceful protests. It will also help inform the work that my Office will continue carrying out in this regard.

In that spirit, I look forward to the outcome of your discussions.

Thank you.