Protecting these rights through robust and timely accountability is vital for preserving the ever-shrinking civic space as a whole; when accountability is missing, it pushes civil society to withdraw and self-censor, and authoritarianism emerges.”
In the present report, to be presented at the 53rd session of the UN Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, examines the practical gaps for accountability for serious crimes committed against activists and protesters for exercising their fundamental freedoms. While taking a victim-centred approach, the report makes recommendations to States and the international community urging them to implement their international human rights obligations to bring accountability and end impunity for these crimes.
The report stresses the importance of providing a holistic victim-centred accountability for serious violations connected to the exercise of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, through effectively investigating, prosecuting and punishing perpetrators, providing full reparations to victims, inclusive of establishing an honest, comprehensive and public account of all violations and their root causes, as well as adopting institutional and policy reforms. The Special Rapporteur argues that only through adopting such holistic accountability measures, the fundamental freedoms of peaceful assembly and association can be enabled, protected, restored and effectively exercised.
Read the full report (A/HRC/53/38) in all UN languages here.
Testimonies: Victims and their representatives speak up about the need for recognition and accountability to put an end to the repression against protesters and activists
Visit our campaign page for further individual testimonies.
Read here the key recommendations to States and the international community:
States have the positive obligation to ensure accountability for crimes committed against protesters and activists, and the international community must put accountability at the centre of its efforts to promote and protect the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association:
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