International System of Protection

Director of the UNESCO Chair on Freedom of Expression at the Universidad de Los Andes, Co-Chair of Meta’s Oversight Board, and Former Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression of the IACHR, Catalina Botero-Marino contributed this chapter to the volume on The Impact of the Inter-American Human Rights System: Transformations on the Ground (New York, 2024). The chapter lays out how the current freedom of expression standards – including those on speech about the issues of public interest and prohibitions of prior and indirect censorship, among others – came to be established within the Inter-American Human Rights System. The chapter then focuses on the transformative influence that two of those standards have had on domestic legal systems: “the standard regarding the limits of criminal law and the standard regarding the scope and nature of the right to access public information.”

The report was put together by the Latin American Observatory of Digital Threats, an alliance of organizations – Derechos Digitales among them – defending digital rights and investigating digital security in Latin America. A “synthesis” of the OLAD members’ work from December 2023 to May 2024, the report builds on two methods: 1) context monitoring, which makes a joint effort to examine the digital security context in the region, and 2) data schematization, which concerns the cases documented by each organization of the alliance individually – 411 cases in total. The issues addressed include surveillance and espionage, online gender-based violence, critical infrastructure attacks, and other online freedom of expression violations in the countries where the OLAD organizations are based: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, México, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

These materials are part of the Multimedia Training Kit (MMTK). Here you will find links to a) Module Handout; b) Module Trainers' notes; c) Module Questions and case studies; d) Module Power Point Slides. "The MMTK provides an integrated set of multimedia training materials and resources to support community media, community multimedia centres, telecentres, and other initiatives using information and communications technologies (ICTs) to empower communities and support development work. [...] This module explores the relationship between human rights, as understood in the Inter-American Human Rights System, and ICTs such as the internet. As well as this handout, it includes a set of presentation slides, exercises and case studies, and a list of additional readings. It raises the following general questions which should be considered by participants: 1. How has the internet changed people’s lives? What rights have been affected positively or negatively due to access to the internet? 2. Should online and offline human rights be understood differently? 3. What should the role of the state be regarding the exercise of human rights online? 4. What are the implications of the global nature of the internet for national human rights laws and international human rights instruments?" 

The Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released a new edition of the Inter-American Legal Framework on the Right to Freedom of Expression. Consolidating freedom of expression standards established by the bodies of the Inter-American system, this 139-page document builds on the earlier version, published in 2009 by the Office of Special Rapporteur Catalina Botero, CGFoE’s former consulting director. The updated version recognizes new categories of specially protected expression, like “speech on environmental issues and speech denouncing gender violence,” reflects the evolution of case law “on the incompatibility of criminal legislation to protect the honor of public officials over critical comments,” and adds strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) to categories of analysis, among many other additions. For now, the document is available in Spanish only.

On 30 April 2020, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Representative on Freedom of the Media, and the Organization of American States Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression published the Joint Declaration on Freedom of Expression and Elections in the Digital Age. The Declaration enumerates recommendations regarding communication during elections for both, State as well as non-State actors. In pursuance of the publication of this Declaration, Toby Mendel, Executive Director of the Centre for Law and Democracy, noted, “The Joint Declaration breaks new ground in several respects…Some key areas it addresses include extending certain types of rules which apply to legacy media, such as on spending and transparency, to digital media, respecting the right to privacy when using personal data to micro-target messages and, for digital actors, avoiding measures which limit the diversity of information available to users or the ability of certain parties and candidates to disseminate messages.”

Freedom of expression rapporteurs at the UN, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Organization of American States (OAS), and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) endorsed a declaration on freedom of expression, access to information, and media freedom amid the growing ubiquity of AI. The document outlines seven guiding principles – such as “the right to freedom of opinion and expression [...] must be embedded throughout the lifecycle of AI, including its design, development, training and deployment” – and offers recommendations to States, international organizations, the private sector, civil society, and the media.

“Pursuant to its mandate, the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights monitors and documents in its annual reports the intervention of the region’s justice system in matters of freedom of expression. In this report, the Office of the Special Rapporteur presents a compilation of different judgments handed down over the past four years by national high courts that represent progress at the domestic level or enrich the regional doctrine and jurisprudence, while incorporating the inter-American standards in support of their decisions. As in other annual reports, this type of analysis aims to contribute to a positive dialogue between the bodies of the system and the national courts, with the conviction that sharing different experiences leads to a virtuous circle of mutual learning. This compilation was put together starting with the cases that have been highlighted and documented by the Office of the Special Rapporteur in its annual reports for the 2013 – 2016 period. The criterion used for the selection of the judicial decisions summarized in this chapter was that they represent progress at the domestic level, either because they ensure the protection of the freedom of expression of the persons directly involved in the specific case, and/or because they set forth legal guidelines that incorporate and develop the inter-American standards in the national sphere. Summarized [in this report] is a selection of notable court decisions. They have been systematized in accordance with 24 items that reflect different standards and rules of the inter-American legal framework, and grouped according to 13 analytical aspects. The decisions are preceded by a synthesis of the inter-American standard that was used as a reference in each category.”

PowerPoint Presentation created by the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights. This presentation is used by the Office in their training sessions. It addresses the Inter-American human rights system, explains the mandate of the Office of the Special Rapporteur, and refers to the jurisprudence and standards on: prohibition of prior censorship, prohibition of desacato laws, proportionality of subsequent liability, prohibition of indirect restrictions on speech, access to information and violence against media workers. .

Social protest is recognized and protected as intrinsic to the existence and consolidation of democracies by the inter-American system of human rights. As per the instruments of the inter-American system, the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association guarantee and protect individual and collective forms of public expression of opinions, dissent, demand for compliance with human rights, and affirmation of the historically marginalized groups in society. Despite such recognition, the region continues to repress and limit the exercise of these rights in the public sphere, due to the notion of citizen mobilization being disruptive for public order or a threat to the stability of democratic institutions. The objective of this report, therefore, is to “contribute to a better understanding of State obligations aimed at guaranteeing, protecting, and facilitating public protests and demonstrations, as well as the standards that should frame the progressive use of force—and as a last resort—in protest contexts”. The report discusses: guiding principles, applicable legal framework, obligation to respect rights, obligation to protect and facilitate, obligation to guarantee rights, protests and the internet, access to information, states of emergency, and conclusions and recommendations. 

This report, published by Access Now and prepared by Franco Giandana Gigena, Latin America Policy Analyst, serves as a reference book for policy-makers in Latin America by systemizing examples of and recommendations on AI-tailored public policy. The report underlines the best practices that can pave the way to human-rights-based regulatory approaches without forestalling innovation; in addition of the fundamental rights focus, Access Now singles out four more minimum standards for regulating AI: transparency, effective monitoring mechanisms (studies of impact on fundamental rights specifically), enforcement and applicable sanctions, and consideration of local contexts.