Following the adoption of the UN Human Rights Committee General Comment no. 37 on Article 21, ICCPR, ECNL now works to ensure that activists, lawyers and policy makers are aware of the enhanced standards enshrined in the General Comment (GC). The GC addresses most critical issues faced by individuals who assemble and protest, creates safeguards for emerging protest practices such as digitally-mediated assemblies and assemblies held in private spaces, and condemns negative trends of use of disproportionate force, internet disruptions and attacks on media, watchdogs or vulnerable groups.
ECNL launched a fact sheet series to help boost awareness of specific innovative protective standards acknowledged by the GC so they can be used in litigations before national or international courts. With these easy-to-read materials we also seek to support the monitoring work of our CSO partners so that they can better identify violations and assess the changed circumstances in which assemblies take place against the backdrop of the pandemic.
The first 3 factsheets look at digitally-mediated assemblies, private assemblies and facial recognition and UN standards, and are available in English and other languages.
We sincerely thank our partners at Human Rights House Zagreb for their kind help with the Croatian translations and the Macedonian Young Lawyers Association for the Macedonian versions.