Senior Human Rights Advisor to the UN RC/HC in Jordan on Safety of journalists from digital threats

As delivered at Panel II: Protection of journalists: defining the responsibilities, the best practices, the global standards, and the future hosted at the UNESCO Jordan Conference to commemorate World Press Freedom Day

Excellencies, Distinguished participants, Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like express my appreciation for this invitation and am pleased to share with you a few observations on how the international human rights framework can contribute to ensuring the safety of journalists from digital threats.

Digital technologies have contributed to unprecedented human progress. Digital technologies can advance human rights, for example for monitoring of human rights violations through the use of image recognition to gather data on rights abuses. Before coming to Jordan, I was myself in charge of a project using artificial intelligence to improve the Universal Human Rights Index, a database compiling all human rights recommendations addressed to States by the United Nations human rights mechanisms, to make it more user-friendly and allow searches of human rights recommendations against the Goals and Targets of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals to facilitate a human rights-based implementation on the 2030 Agenda by States.

Yet the digital age has also brought with it immense new challenges in protecting human rights and democracy.

Online hate speech and disinformation are widespread. Journalists, politicians, and human rights defenders face surveillance. Women and girls, are increasingly subject to online attacks. Pegasus spyware is reportedly being used in 45 countries including Jordan, often in secrecy and outside of any legal framework.

Responding to these concerns is very challenging, as regulating communications creates risks for the protection of freedom of expression. In the last two years alone, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has recorded over 60 countries which adopted or are considering new laws on social media. Many of these regulations are problematic, imposing restrictions that overreach and undermine fundamental rights. Internet and media shutdowns are also on the rise.

In addressing these challenges to safeguard human rights and democratic space in the digital age, the human rights legal framework can offer guidance and protection. Jordan has ratified seven out of the nine core human rights treaties, the Covenants on civil, political and economic, social and cultural rights, as well as treaties combatting racism or torture, and protecting women, children and persons with disabilities.

These treaties, in particular the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and  the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, protect three key rights I would like to mention today, the right to freedom of expression, the right to participate in public affairs and the right to privacy.

The right to freedom of opinions and expression must be preserved online as well as offline, and must go hand-in-hand with addressing online hate speech and disinformation. Crucially, any measures taken by private companies and States to regulate speech must respond to the three-part test based on the principles of legality, necessity and proportionality. Attempts to regulate online spaces should be firmly framed by human rights norms and principles such as ensuring transparency and accountability but also ensure participation in their development.

The right to participate in public affairs relates to the right to participate in electoral but also non-electoral processes. It has found recent expression in Jordan through the Royal Committee’s Process of Reform of the Electoral and Political Parties system and accompanying legislation but also in the 5th Action Plan adopted under the Open Government initiative which among its priorities includes “Enhancing Community Engagement in the Decision-Making Process through Electronic Tools”.

Civil society plays a key role here – participation is crucial; civil society should be meaningfully engaged in the development of policies, regulation and other measures relating to digital technologies and the online space. Journalists and civil society actors should have open and secure access to online spaces, free from surveillance and censorship. States and online companies have a responsibility to ensure this and make sure we have recourse when threats arise.

Lastly, we need to urgently address the right to privacy in the digital realm.  Intrusive measures by States and businesses enable surveillance that feeds analysis, prediction and even manipulation of our behaviour. Recent revelations about global abuses of spyware, targeting journalists, human rights defenders, dissidents, opposition politicians, and diplomats are in flagrant violation of the right to privacy.

The ongoing threat to the right to privacy plays out heavily on social media. Encryption and anonymity tools can counter this threat and allow users to exercise their rights to freedom of opinion and expression more safely. In parallel, national laws should be developed to ensure strong data protection, in line with human rights standards.

Let me conclude by stating how the int’l human rights framework can assist in Jordan:

Firstly, international human rights standards should inform the development or revisions of national legislation, policies and practices safeguarding these essential rights to ensure the safety of journalists from digital threats. Under each of these human rights treaty provisions, there is a wealth of interpretative guidance available in the form of General Comments, Human Rights Council resolutions or other United Nations guidelines to facilitate this task. (The “Guidelines on the effective implementation on the right to participate in public affairs” provide recommendations for States on different dimensions of the right to participate, for example on participation in electoral processes, and on direct participation in non-electoral contexts.

The Rabat Plan of Action suggests a high threshold for defining restrictions on freedom of expression, incitement to hatred, and for the application of article 20 of the ICCPR. It outlines a six-part threshold test taking into account (1) the social and political context, (2) status of the speaker, (3) intent to incite the audience against a target group, (4) content and form of the speech, (5) extent of its dissemination and (6) likelihood of harm, including imminence.) The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights are just one example providing a framework for the private sector, including for private surveillance companies.

Secondly, the United Nations human rights framework includes independent experts, so-called Special Rapporteurs, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council which author thematic reports including highlighting good practices from other UN Member States that can assist in this work. Jordan could also consider inviting relevant mandate-holders to come on a country visit, for example the UN Special Rapporteur’s on the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, or the Working Group on Business and Human Rights.

Lastly, in addition to Special Rapporteurs who already visited Jordan and made recommendations after their visit, other human rights mechanisms have addressed recommendations to Jordan to ensure the safety of journalists, like the Human Rights Committee or the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. You can find all these recommendations at the Universal Human Rights Index database, which I mentioned before.

During the 2018 Universal Period Review Process, Jordan committed to ensure a safe and enabling environment for journalists and media workers, and ensure freedom of the media and a space for civil society free from interference, threats and intimidation (UPR 135.72), and to review its legislation and practices with the aim of ensuring that all persons and civil society actors, including human rights defenders and journalists, can freely exercise their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, both online and offline (UPR 136.17). Jordan will be reviewed again at the outset of 2024. Now is the time to advocate that these recommendations are being implemented.

Keeping free, pluralistic, independent information accessible to all, and allowing journalists and human rights defenders to perform their work, is paramount to the protection of human rights.

I look forward to engaging with you today in exploring such entry points and opportunities further and wish us all an interesting discussion.