How can UN resolutions make it safer to be a journalist?

Since 2012, several landmark resolutions have been approved by UN bodies on the issue of the safety of journalists. This guide explains what they are, and how to use them to keep governments accountable.

Never has the United Nations (UN) been so focussed on the issue of journalistic safety. Since 2012, when the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity was launched, several landmark resolutions have been passed. The need to protect the practice of journalism is higher than ever on the UN agenda. The challenge? Turning words on paper into reality on the ground. For civil society organisations, this starts by increasing our understanding of these resolutions, monitoring their application, and demanding government follow-through and accountability.

What you need to know about UN resolutions for the safety of journalists

We’ve organised this explainer in five sections, followed by a timeline of key resolutions relating to journalist safety and impunity and links to additional resources:

1. What are they?
2. What are they supposed to achieve?
3. Who is involved in their development?
4. How is implementation monitored?
5. How can civil society monitor, strengthen, and use them?

But first, some acronyms that will come in handy:

HRC: United Nations Human Rights Council
OHCHR: Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
UN: United Nations
UNESCO: United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
UNGA United Nations General Assembly
UNSC: United Nations Security Council
UNSG: United Nations Secretary General
UPR: Universal Periodic Review

1. What are they?

Since 2012, several resolutions on the safety of journalists have been passed by various UN bodies. Together, they provide a framework for the promotion of the safety of journalists at the global level, and, more importantly, at the national and local level. Four resolutions were passed by the UNGA, three by the HRC, one by the UNSC and another by UNESCO. Previous to 2012, only two resolutions were focused on this particular issue; one passed by UNESCO in 1997 and another, by the UNSC, in 2006. Resolutions are available in the six official UN languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

2. What are they supposed to achieve?

UN resolutions reflect the views of the UN Member States and they provide policy recommendations. Although these are not binding, they do establish political commitments. And they have evolved, providing more concrete recommendations which can be used in advocacy efforts. HRC Resolution 32/13 affirmed that “the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, in particular freedom of expression”. According to IFEX member ARTICLE 19, HRC Resolution 33/2 (2016) “broke new ground”, by calling on States to take action on specific issues including arbitrary detentions, encryption, digital security and gender-based attacks.

3. Who is involved in their development?

The process of drafting a resolution usually starts with an informal proposal made by one or more UN Member States, known as sponsors. Through informal engagement with other State delegations in the corresponding UN body, co-sponsors may decide to join the initiative, and a draft resolution is then officially presented for discussion at the relevant sessions of the UNGA, the HRC, the UNSC, or the UNESCO General Conference.

4. How is implementation monitored?

Monitoring the implementation of UN resolutions is a collective task. Civil society organisations can supervise governments’ progress towards implementing their commitments, and can advocate, when necessary, to ensure they follow through. Media, in their role as watchdogs, can report on whether governments are fulfilling their duties as outlined in resolutions. However, the UN system also has its own monitoring procedures. In most cases, resolutions are followed-up with a report, which is prepared by the OHCHR, on behalf of the UNSG in the case of UNGA resolutions; by the OHCHR in the case of HRC resolutions; and by the UNESCO Secretariat in the case of UNESCO resolutions. For the UNSC, information is provided in the UNSG reports on the protection of civilians.

5. How can civil society monitor, strengthen, and use them?

• Create and work with coalitions to actively engage in the development of UN resolutions by advocating and providing inputs via local governments, foreign embassies, UN delegations and informal groupings of States that are supportive on the issue of journalists’ safety, such as those recently created at the UN in New York and Geneva, and UNESCO in Paris. Early in the process, civil society groups may be able to provide inputs, ideally in a coordinated manner, by nurturing relationships with UN delegations.

• When a resolution is being informally discussed, advocate for your country to co-sponsor it, particularly if it has not done so in the past. This will strengthen requests for government accountability. The majority of UN human rights resolutions are adopted by consensus. However, even then, States are invited to “cosponsor” the resolution, as a way of showing their heightened support for the commitments it contains. The more cosponsoring States a resolution receives, the more it demonstrates that it is a global priority.

• Make the resolution’s commitments widely available; raise awareness about its recommendations among civil society groups in your country as well as at the regional level, among media outlets, and with society at large. (A tip: Hyperlinks to UN resolutions can be created by adding the number of the resolution to the address undocs.org. For example: HRC resolution 33/2 would be http://undocs.org/A/HRC/RES/33/2)

• Monitor its implementation at the national level, and advocate for governments to improve on their achievements. For example, you can send letters to your foreign ministry asking what measures have been taken to implement commitments expressed in resolutions – there is usually a person or department responsible for intergovernmental organisations – and/or to your country representation in the appropriate delegation to the UN in New York, Geneva or Paris (emails can be found on the websites of these UN bodies). To reinforce these actions, call for meetings with government representatives at the foreign ministry to discuss the resolution’s implementation. In this process, you will find it useful to check whether your country has sponsored or co-sponsored any of the resolutions; the information is available at this link for the UNGA, and in the draft resolutions in the cases of HRC and UNESCO resolutions. For the resolutions mentioned in the timeline above, you can find the list of government co-sponsors at the end of this piece.

• Share the results of your monitoring and follow-up activities with other civil society groups, and join efforts to strengthen the resolution’s implementation.

• Use any concrete recommendations in the resolutions to support specific advocacy actions and campaigns for the safety of journalists in your country or region.

• Promote the use of recommendations in judicial processes and litigation.

• Contribute to implementation reports. Calls for contributions are made in advance by the OHCHR. Get updates by subscribing to the civil society newsletter here.

• Advocate for the resolution’s recommendations to be taken into account and used by other UN processes and mechanisms, such as the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the special mechanisms, and the treaty body recommendation.

• Help to inform the community on the debates about resolutions. You can follow sessions in person and, for the UNGA and the HRC, via webcasts. You can also tweet about them and write articles. This is important, as you can share each country’s positions and to what extent they are supporting the issue of the safety of journalists.

More resources and information:

• UNGA website. (Resolutions and drafts can be located by UNGA session, in the section called “Documents”)
• HRC website (Resolutions and drafts can be located by HRC session)
• How to Follow up on UN Human Rights Recommendations. A Practical Guide for Civil Society
• Prevent, Protect, Prosecute. Acting on UN Human Rights Council Resolution 33/2
• Basic texts related to the safety of journalists

A timeline of key resolutions relating to journalist safety and impunity

Each resolution has managed to advance the issue of journalist safety and impunity in incremental but essential ways, as illustrated in the timeline below.

“When journalists are targeted, societies as a whole also pay the price. The kind of news that gets silenced – corruption, conflicts of interest, illegal trafficking – is exactly the kind of information the public needs to know.”Statement from UN Secretary General António Guterres, on 2 November 2017, the day United Nations General Assembly Resolution 68/163 designated to be the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists