Exercising our freedoms of peaceful assembly and association – whether online or offline – is more and more affected by digital surveillance technologies, including those based on artificial intelligence (AI). Public and private actors increasingly use AI-based surveillance tools, such as real-time and retrospective facial and emotion recognition to track, identify and detain activists and protesters. This prevents people from exercising their rights to organise and protest, both domestically and across borders. There is also a lack of transparency regarding where and when these tools are used, as well as how they collect and analyse vast amounts of personal data. As a result, people feel even more intimidated and less willing to participate in civic and political activism, both online and offline.
Prompted by the increased misuse of digital and AI-based surveillance systems to monitor and repress activism, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association launched a call for input for her forthcoming Human Rights Council (HRC) thematic report. It will:
- look at how state authorities use different digital surveillance tools – often on the pretext of protecting security and public order – and also the responsibilities that non-state actors play in this context;
- analyse how they limit freedom of peaceful assembly and association, including the broader chilling effects to safely and freely exercise these rights, especially for marginalised groups; and
- identify gaps and effective practices in regulations, policies and procedures across national, regional and global contexts to ensure digital surveillance is accountable and these rights are safeguarded.
Read below ECNL's submission for this upcoming thematic report. Our analysis:
- outlines concrete examples of how digital surveillance technologies impacted these rights online and offline;
- recommends specific safeguards to be put in place through the lifecycle of digital / AI technology to prevent unlawful and arbitrary surveillance, and to mitigate chilling effects.
The final report on the "Impact of digital and AI-assisted surveillance on assembly and association rights, including chilling effects” is due to be presented at the UN HRC 62th Session in June 2026.