Freedom of Assembly

Azerbaijan is carrying out a vicious attack on government critics, independent groups, and media. The crackdown has intensified just months before Azerbaijan is to host COP29, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which opens in Baku on 11 November 2024.

Authoritarian governments around the world are restricting freedom of movement in retribution for political activism and dissent, subjecting people to a variety of repressive tactics, including travel bans, revocation of citizenship, confiscation of passports. 

“The Russian government’s dismantling of civic freedoms since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 is a dramatic escalation of its sustained assault on fundamental rights spanning more than a decade” – HRW

An overview of the threats and dangers posed by AI tech on Palestinians and advocates.

The report noted that the government’s crackdown on fundamental freedoms hindered public participation and undermined the advancement of democracy in Cambodia.

Marking 50 years in the struggle for democracy

This report documents cases of how repressive laws were used to curtail the right to speech, expression and assembly in Malaysia this past year.

This report takes stock of progress made towards accountability for the killing and injuring of protesters and activists committed during, and in the wake of, the 2019-2020 uprising across central and southern Iraq.

A mission to Iraq found that human rights defenders, journalists and activists still hold onto hope for an end to the extreme human rights violations, but urgently need international support to help promote human rights, press freedom and accountability.

The report examines how Iranian authorities systematically violate people’s right to protest and assemble, deceive and lie about the violations they commit, and unlawfully keep people seeking transparency and accountability in the dark.

The government has repeatedly bent to pressure from powerful interest groups, including those who advocate the use of violence on the basis of religion, and in doing so has not protected freedom of speech and religion, and the rights of at-risk communities. Police investigations into targeted attacks have stalled, largely because those responsible enjoy political protection.

According to the BCHR Annual Report, the human rights situation did not improve in 2021. The authorities are still intolerant to dissent and criticism and restrict Bahrainis’ exercise of internationally-guaranteed fundamental rights.

Report of the 1-15 December 2021 joint fact-finding mission. The partner organisations conclude that challenges to the independence of the media and the safety of journalists are systemic in the country. While the problems are not unique, their intensity is highly problematic and sets it apart from most other EU Member States.

PEN America’s report explores the creative response to the February 2021 coup in Myanmar and the brutal retaliation by the military.

Ten years on, the pro-democracy movement leaders are still behind bars, the major opposition political parties are outlawed, and the only independent newspaper in the country is indefinitely suspended. The Government of Bahrain’s (GoB) crackdown on free expression is in full force, as well as attempts to intimidate its critics into silence.

Throughout the reporting period of May-June 2021, the government continued its verbal commitment to reform and introduced a set of legislative changes. But in practice, thanks to repressive government policies combined with discriminatory practices of politicized public institutions and judicial violations, the situation of freedom of expression and the media deteriorated further.

This briefing paper first explains internet restrictions that the NLD-led government put in place before the coup. It then sets out a timeline of the implementation of internet restrictions since 1 February.

The study focuses on 7 topics:

• The media’s concerns regarding the parliamentary elections
• The demands of the October 17 Movement and television coverage
• Monitoring women’s representations in the media and their political participation
• Monitoring the priorities of traditional and alternative media
• The media’s interest in corruption issues
• The union and student elections and coverage by traditional and alternative media
• New influencers and media figures through social platforms

In this annual report, GCHR presents a summary of our e#orts in advocating for HRDs, activists, journalists and citizens in exercising their human rights and freedoms and protecting these rights in the region.

Along with other civil liberties organizations and activists, EFF has long warned that Amazon Ring and other networked home surveillance devices could be used to monitor political activity and protests. Now we have documented proof that our fears were founded.

The protesters’ complaints about the government’s anti-democratic nature have been underscored by the authorities’ response to the protests. The government has harassed and obstructed protest organisers at every turn. At least 173 individuals have been charged because of their role in protests this year.

Government ordered Internet shutdowns are fast becoming a key tactic to disconnect people from each other and to prevent us from scrutinising our governments’ actions.

During nation-wide protests in November 2019 Iran’s government cut off the Internet for over 80 million people.  As the shutdown continued the authorities attacked and killed hundreds.

The aim of this report is to present a series of abuses identified by our organisation during the state of emergency during the COVID-19 crisis. We have identified and exposed in this period actions of state actors that have threatened, affected or directly attacked fundamental rights such as the right to freedom of expression, the right to information and, implicitly, media freedom.

More than 50 human rights groups have written to the UN’s Special Rapporteurs on freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and association, and human rights in Belarus over disruptions to the internet that took place during the presidential elections.

From 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020, the monitoring report showed that the space to exercise fundamental freedoms continues to be restricted in Cambodia.

As individuals have mobilized, state legislatures across the country have begun introducing bills meant to suppress, restrict, or criminalize the right to protest at an ever-increasing rate.

The October 17 uprising in Lebanon – fueled by rampant corruption and the country’s worst economic crisis since the end of the civil war in 1990 – has sparked a newfound collective consciousness  where the rights and identities of marginalized groups are part and parcel of the protests.

In this study, incidents related freedom of opinion and expression are documented in three categories: oppression campaigns against freedom of opinion and expression; freedom of expression is the weapon of the revolution; and, media institutions amidst the revolution

A brief reading of human rights trends in the Arab region.

The use of disproportionate, excessive force to disperse protests in violent repeated crackdowns, without ensuring that security operations pose a minimal risk to life, according to many people Human Rights Watch interviewed, was a deliberate attempt to intimidate the movement and break the resolve of protesters.

A report documenting human rights violations committed by the regime in 2018.

A comprehensive look at the core security agency driving Bahrain’s human rights crisis, Anatomy of a Police State is the first full study of the Ministry of Interior (MOI) police force’s integral role in the kingdom’s repression of dissent.

Thirty-five violations were recorded in 12 countries with Nigeria recording the highest number. The findings show a slight reduction in the cases of violations compared to the previous quarter (April June, 2018) which recorded 40 violations.

Freedom of association in Morocco witnessed relative improvement in 2016–2017. Yet the continued application of outdated laws governing civic activities forebodes a reinstatement of numerous arbitrary administrative and security practices that imperil civil society.

In this report, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) examines the contributions of ACPRA within the larger context of the movement for civil and political reform in Saudi Arabia.

Although invalidated through a unanimous repeal by the Egyptian Parliament in 1928, the Assembly Law continues to be unlawfully exploited in tandem with the notorious Protest Law, passed in November 2013.

During the year, the ruling National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) junta curtailed the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly through repressive laws such the Referendum Act, the Computer Crime Act, and article 116 of the penal code on sedition, as well as NCPO orders censoring media and preventing public gatherings of more than five people.

Singapore’s political environment is stifling, and citizens continued in 2016 to face severe restrictions on their basic rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.

The murder of popular political commentator Kem Ley, who had voiced many criticisms of the government, on 10 July 2016, remains unanswered. Authorities systematically denied Cambodians their right to peaceful assembly by suppressing protests and issuing a series of ad hoc bans on non-violent gatherings and processions.

Restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and assembly persist, amid the government’s failure to contend with the range of rights-abusing laws that have been long used to criminalize free speech and prosecute dissidents.As part of the military’s “clearance operations” in northern Rakhine State, where thousands of Rohingya Muslims face rampant and systemic human rights violations, the authorities denied independent journalists access to the region since early October.

Events at recent demonstrations and protests indicate that the fundamental freedoms of expression and assembly in the Kingdom of Cambodia are facing ever-greater interference and restriction at the hands of local and national authorities.

Violence against journalists in Europe increased in the second quarter of 2016, reports submitted to Index on Censorship’s Mapping Media Freedom platform show, as a government crackdown in Turkey intensified and protests turned violent in countries from France to Finland.

The government uses draconian laws such as the sedition provisions of the penal code, the criminal defamation law, and laws dealing with hate speech to silence dissent. These laws are vaguely worded, overly broad, and prone to misuse, and have been repeatedly used for political purposes against critics at the national and state level.

In recent years, the space afforded to civil society to operate freely has been shrinking dramatically across the world, presenting a serious threat to democracy and human rights. Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) have been especially badly affected by this shrinking political space.

The first months of 2014 saw a continuation of the political unrest that rocked the capital city of Phnom Penh in the months following the disputed July 2013 national elections. Political protests continued throughout the city in 2014 as the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) boycotted its National Assembly seats over alleged widespread irregularities in the previous year’s election, which maintained control of the legislative body under the Cambodian People’s Party, and its long-ruling leader Prime Minister Hun Sen, who in 2014 marked 30 years as head of state.

This 140-page report documents lax government enforcement of labor laws and brand actions that hinder monitoring and compliance. In recent years, wage protests, instances of garment workers fainting, and burdensome union registration procedures have spotlighted the plight of workers in Cambodia’s garment factories.

This report documents 45 cases from Caracas and three states, involving more than 150 victims, in which security forces have abused the rights of protesters and other people in the vicinity of demonstrations.

The 100-page report shows that Tibetan refugee communities in Nepal are now facing a de facto ban on political protests, sharp restrictions on public activities promoting Tibetan culture and religion, and routine abuses by Nepali security forces.

The Turkish authorities severely restricted the right to freedom of expression of journalists and writers during and after the Gezi Park protests in 2013, English PEN and PEN International said in their joint report.

This factsheet provides an overview of the recent rubbish collectors’ protests and subsequent negotiations with garbage collection company CINTRI. The strike for an increased minimum wage and improved working conditions went ahead in spite of the current ban on all demonstrations, assemblies and marches, and remained peaceful, despite heavy military police presence

This Briefing Note addresses the increasing practice of forcing human rights defenders, protesters and everyday citizens to sign written statements agreeing to not partake in future demonstrations or illegal activities, as a condition of their release or to avoid charges

Charges against dozens of protesters in connection with the protest on the eve of President Vladimir Putin’s 2012 inauguration are “inappropriate” and “disproportionate,” according to a panel of independent experts. Twenty seven people are facing “mass rioting” charges in connection with the protest on May 6, 2012.

There is some skepticism about how much influence Burma’s youth movement can assert in terms of political change. Still, activists have benefited from greater access to the Internet, which has brought a new side to the online community after decades of heavy censorship

The report documents case after case in which police, the paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), and the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) opened fire into crowds or beat protesters in a brutal and unlawful manner

In a context of increasing protests about working conditions in garment factories throughout Cambodia, the Garment Factory Map is aimed at providing greater transparency regarding the ownership and supply chains of Cambodian garment factories

Documenting human rights abuses during the pro-democracy movement

Mission to UAE investigates crackdown on free expression in which 64 activists have been detained

Crackdowns on Protests Cause Big Changes to Index Positions