This week we carry on with the same report from last text. The summary of the report published at https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/act30/6011/2017/en/
Some Human Rights Defenders (HRD) are stigmatized and threatened by unknown online adversaries called "trolls". For activists, HRDs and many journalists, trolls are much more than an online annoyance. They work as part of networks organized and sometimes even funded by governments or private firms to seek out activists online, discredit them and intimidate them including by sending death threats. Troll networks have recently expanded their tactics to include full-blown misinformation campaigns, sometimes employing people to generate trending topics that discredit and stigmatize HRDs and journalists. Mexican HRD Alberto Escorcia told Amnesty International that "on an average day he see two trending topics generated by the trolls. Anywhere between 1000 and 3000 tweets a day. Many operate as part of organized "troll gangs" who are paid to make stories go viral or to launch campaigns discrediting and attacking journalists. Carmen Aristegui is a renowned and outspoken investigative journalist who has revealed several corruption allegations among the Mexico's powerful; she has openly challenged the government many times. She has twice been sacked from national radio and there is a defamation civil lawsuit pending against her. Carmen now runs an independent online news portal which estimates that each troll attack diminishes its capacity by 50% as staff are occupied with responding to the attacks. The ability to communicate and interact with international institutions like the U.N. and regional mechanisms is essential for HRDs' work. Interacting with such bodies allows HRDs to bring important human rights information to relevant stakeholders. It also creates a space for HRDs to network with other civil society actors. The right to communicate with international bodies is in numerous international instruments, including those related to freedom of expression and movement. HRDs faces increasing levels of harassment and intimidation and, in some cases, criminalization and other attacks for exposing human rights violations and abuses to regional or international human rights mechanisms. This includes the imposition of travel restrictions or insurmountable visa requirements on HRDs to ban them from travelling abroad and participating in human rights events or meetings. By prohibiting HRDs from participating in such procedures, governments are actively undermining their attempts to bring human rights concerns to international attention and to communicate with human rights communities abroad. Without crucial input from HRDs, the ability of international and regional mechanisms to carry out and fulfil their mandates is seriously limited. Mass surveillance and targeted surveillance of HRDs, online and offline, continues to grow worldwide. Its rapid growth is aided by the increasingly broad powers granted by new and existing legislation, as well as the development and availability of new technologies. It is often difficult for HRDs and others to prove the existence of surveillance, either because of technical hurdles or because its use is covert. However, even where targeting can't be proven, the fact of living under the constant threat of possible surveillance may constitute a human rights violation in itself. Surveillance laws and practices have a widespread damaging effect on communities and societies, causing HRDs to self-censor out of fear, and refrain from exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. In a world where the powerful are increasingly pushing a harmful narrative which undermines human rights; the right to privacy, association and expression are more important than ever. The targeted surveillance of HRDs and others is commonplace all over the world. In the U.K. police have put journalists under surveillance in order to identify their sources, while Bahraini activists in exile have been tracked by their government using spyware, and Colombian radio journalists have been subjected to eletronic surveillance by the national police. The Ethiopian government has used online surveillance to spy on opposition activists at home and abroad. The fear of state surveillance is pervasive amongst civil society activists in Belarus. Inadequate regulation and oversight, and a lack of opportunity to challenge surveillance mean that activists and HRDs have little choice but to assume they are under surveillance at any time. The law in Belarus allows the authorities to undertake wide-ranging surveillance for nearly any reason, and with no independent oversight. It has had a debilitating effect on civil society which is already seriously undermined by the threat of criminal or administrative punishment merely for exercising human rights like attending peaceful protests. Internet censorship takes different forms. In some cases, states use the criminal justice system or administrative sanctions to prosecute individuals for expression online. As was the case in Kazakhstan, when many people were arrested under administrative laws simply for stating on social media their intentions to attend a public protest. In others cases, states with increased censorship capabilities which are used to limit individuals' ability to seek, receive and disseminate information. Many states impose restrictions on the right to freedom of movement within national as well as international boundaries with the aim of restricting or impeding human rights activities, including co-operation with international and regional human rights mechanisms, and HRDs' access to international support. States around the world are failing in their obligations to respect and protect the right to defend human rights, including by failing to implement effective protection mechanisms for HRDs at risk, or punishing those responsible for attacking them. HRDs can't operate effectively and contribute to making aq safer, more just world unless states undertake to ensure they are adequately with the necessary skills, tools and training for them to carry out their work. Furthermore, states must ensure that HRDs are allowed to connect with each other, including HRDs in other countries, and that they have full access to decision makers at the national and international levels without fear of reprisals. There is a global movement for human rights. When injustice happens to one person, it matters to us all.
