The first-ever guide on monitoring digitally-mediated assemblies is out now!

23-09-2022
New guide launched to better understand and analyse how digital technologies impact the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.

ECNL is proud to present the new Guide on Digitally-Mediated Assemblies and How to Monitor Them. With this guide, you will be able to: 

  • Collect data on the new ways digital technologies are used to organise assemblies and protests; 
  • Uncover any opportunities and challenges those digital technologies present; 
  • Learn about your rights and freedoms when it comes to digitally-mediated assemblies; 
  • Explore if and how governmental and private actors enable, facilitate, and protect such assemblies and protests.
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A light grey watercolour background with centrally a yellow circle. In the circle are three old computer monitors and from one of them an arm, holding a mobile phone emerges upwards. The phone shows an assembly of people.

Why this guide? 

The right to freedom of peaceful assembly does not only cover physical assemblies, but also ones that are digitally-mediated. However, assemblies that partially or fully take place online present their own challenges when it comes to the protection of the right. For example, the UN Human Rights Council states that “new technologies can be enablers for the exercise of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly […] by facilitating mobilization for and the organization of assemblies”. At the same time, these new technologies can be a threat to online assemblies when the former are used for unlawful surveillance online, for example by the use of digital tracking tools.  

This guide supports civil society organisations to better understand the legal safeguards and gather data on how digital technologies affect the freedom of assembly in their countries. 

This guide is work in progress, and we are interested to keep improving it together with you! If you are interested to do so, please reach out to [email protected].  

Click here to read the Guide on Digitally-Mediated Assemblies and How to Monitor Them!