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Fixed Broadband Subscriptions per 100 inhabitants in 2017

The reform of restrictive media laws should be prioritised to expand civic space for the press and for civil society.

Angola is a country in west Africa with a population of 33 million. The presidential republic is dominated by one party, Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA).

João Lourenço’s rise to the Presidency in 2017 marked the end of his predecessor José Eduardo Dos Santos’ 38-year rule. Lourenço has removed a number of the former President’s family members and political allies from senior posts in his stated campaign against corruption. The Lourenço administration continues to impose limitations on political opponents’ and civil society groups’ rights to freedom of expression. These limitations particularly impact upon journalists and media workers, with censorship and surveillance extending to online spaces.

Angola

We conduct advocacy during the pre-session through direct lobbying to UN member state representatives and support local advocacy events and workshops that amplify the UPR. During the reviews, we amplify the UPR process and the recommendations our partners have drafted through live- monitoring by our local partners and on social media. We then conduct advocacy during the post- UPR period with activities such as training for government officials and events that highlight the recommendations made during the UPR. 

The country clusters are a local working group in each Uproar target country made up of our partner organisations. The clusters are organised by local lead organisations, who then coordinate local civil society and human rights defenders with digital rights expertise to engage in national-level advocacy and campaigning.

A review cycle is a four-and-half-year period within which all UN Member states’ human rights records are reviewed.  Each 4.5-year period is called a UPR cycle. In this section, you can find all recommendations made organised by cycle.

Over a hundred local and international human rights organisations are part of the wider Uproar programme. You can find them listed here.

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Small Media

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The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa

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Angola Factsheet.pdf

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End persecutions of journalists, human rights defenders and voices critical of the government. 

Benin is located in West Africa and has a population of 12.8 million. Previously considered one of sub-Saharan Africa’s most stable democracies, however, since the election of Patrice Talon as president in 2016, democratic backsliding in the country has been underway threatening its pluralist media landscape and constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression. 

Its 1990 constitution guarantees ‘’secrecy of correspondence and communications’’and freedom of opinion, expression and the press. 
 
Restrictions on civil liberties are on the rise with journalists, bloggers, activists and opposition figures facing prosecutions and arrests, including for online content and criticism of Talon and his presidency. 

Benin

Benin factsheet.pdf

Benin UPR Submission.pdf

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Botswana needs to bring its laws and practices in line with international human rights standards to protect digital rights. 

Botswana is located in Southern Africa with a population estimate of 2.4 million. Its1996 Constitution (as amended) provides for various rights including the rights to freedom of expression, association, assembly, privacy and others. The Government of Botswana continues to harass journalists by using criminal defamation charges to limit online expression.

Although freedom of speech is guaranteed under the constitution, journalists and media are harassed for their reporting. Moreover, a government ban on private-media advertising causes the dominance of state-run outlets which are biased in reporting. According to the 2008 Media Practitioners Act all media workers and outlets—including websites and blogs— must be registered with violations punishable by a fine or imprisonment. 

Botswana

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The government of Burkina Faso should protect freedom of expression by abolishing severe punishments for speech related offences.

Burkina Faso is a country located in West Africa with a population estimate of 22.1 million. Its 1991 Constitution  provides for various rights including the rights to freedom of expression, opinion, privacy, association, assembly and others. 

Reporters without Borders describes it as ‘’one of Africa’s success stories’’ thanks to its ‘’dynamic, professional and diverse media’’. The country made notable democratic progress following the departure of President Blaise Compaoré. The media environment has improved and defamation was decriminalized, although heavy fines and closures of media outlets can still be prescribed as punishments. Additionally, 2019 amendments to the criminal code prescribed severe punishments for the publication of ‘’false information’’. Freedom of expression is largely unrestricted and NGOs operate freely, however, legal restrictions and violent threats from Islamist militant groups hinder such activities. 

Burkina Faso

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Burundi should adopt a robust personal data protection law and protect freedom of expression in accordance with international human rights standards.

Burundi is a country located in East Africa with a population estimate of 12.6 million. Political instability, ethnic-based violence and episodes of civil war between the Tutsi and Hutu ethnic groups since the country’s independence from Belgium have had long-lasting impacts on economic development, politics and human rights in the country. Its 2005 Constitution includes the right to privacy, association, assembly, expression and others. However, the protection of these rights in the online space is limited. 

For example, Burundi’s Penal Code and Press Law, 2015 both pose huge threats to the protection of online rights. These laws have also been used to arrest and harass journalists. In addition to this, Burundi has constantly threatened the civic space with arbitrary suspension of civil society organisations. The country also needs a data protection law and an independent communications regulator that must be committed to apply international human rights standards to its various practices. 

Burundi

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Arsene T

On May 7, 2019 the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was having its human rights record reviewed in Geneva as part of the Universal Periodic Review process (or UPR), but we were having trouble tuning in. The live-stream kept crashing, but usually came back after we’d hit the ‘refresh’ button a few times.

When the live-stream was working properly, we watched government officials — including the Minister of Human Rights, Mrs. Marie-Ange Mushobekwa — listening to recommendations from the international community about how to improve the human rights situation in the DRC.

In collaboration with [Small Media](https://smallmedia.org.uk/) and its partners, [Rudi International](https://rudiinternational.org/) is a member of the [UPROAR](https://uproar.fyi/) coalition, which supported us to take part in advocacy and lobbying efforts to raise the profile of digital rights in the DRC at the UPR.

Although we’d traveled to Geneva to lobby diplomats at the UPR-Info pre-sessions in April, we weren’t able to go back in May for the actual review. So instead, we crowded into a meeting room in Goma to watch it all happen online.

But our unreliable connection meant this wasn’t easy. This experience clearly demonstrated why there’s such a need to support and expand high-speed connectivity across the country — it was just a frustration in our case, but on a larger scale this lack of connectivity undermines the rights of Congolese citizens to access information freely, to assemble, and to engage with core services.

Rudi International was specifically interested in following the recommendations put forward by a number of countries that we met with during the lobbying period in Geneva, to see whether they took our digital rights concerns seriously, and incorporated our suggestions into their recommendations.

Despite the fact that there are so many other pressing human rights issues in the Congo, and despite the fact that countries only have around two minutes to speak about their chosen issues, a number of them managed to touch on digital rights issues either as a component of their main recommendations, or as an advance question. This was such a great thing to hear!

#### **Assessing Our Impact**

Now that the UPR report has been distributed, we’re happy to share the outcome.

The good news is that two recommendations from **Austria** and **Belgium** now mention issues relating to internet freedom (focusing on internet shutdowns and freedom of expression online). These recommendations can be traced back directly to our meetings with human rights experts from the two countries’ missions.

***Belgium** — Withdraw all media closure measures and no longer resort to the practice of limiting or cutting off communications systems (such as the internet and sms), including during moments of tension or popular mobilization;*

***Austria** — Ensure that perpetrators of violations of international humanitarian law and human rights violations, including against journalists, online media professionals, bloggers and human rights defenders, are brought to justice;*

We also had some direct impact on a question made by the USA, which mentioned challenges around freedom of expression online and offline:

***USA** — “What steps is the new government taking to guarantee individuals’ rights to free expression and free assembly online and offline?”*

Other countries we met with — including **Czechia**, the **Netherlands**, and **Germany** — also made recommendations or posed questions that are relevant to freedom of expression, even if they were not explicit in their treatment of “online” expression.

We have also engaged with a number of other countries via email, and shared our comprehensive advocacy document. The **UK**, **France**, and **Estonia** (who all received our briefings) all made broader recommendations relating to freedom of expression and the protection of media broadcasts and journalists.

#### **Where We Go Next**

It is worth to note that the DRC has been reviewed twice as part of the 2009 and 2014 cycles, but this cycle is the first time that digital rights have made it onto the international community’s agenda. At Rudi International, we’re happy to have contributed towards making this possible, through our work and advocacy.

It’s also worth noting that **ALL recommendations are currently under consideration by the government of the DRC**, and we don’t yet know which ones they will accept. The final decision on each of these recommendations will be made public around September 2019 — we hope they will all be supported, and call on the government to provide real support to digital rights!


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After travelling to Geneva to try and put internet shutdowns and access on the agenda, Arsène Tungali tuned in to see whether the international community had been listening.

Hitting ‘Refresh’ on Digital Rights in the DRC

There are many civil society leaders from across the globe that have been involved in the *Universal Periodic Review* (UPR) process since the beginning. But there are many others, like myself, for whom it is a completely new experience.

Not only was this my first experience with UPR advocacy, it was also my first trip to Geneva. And of course it didn’t go so smoothly at first. But I’ll get to that story in a minute.

I’m the Executive Director of [Rudi International](https://rudiinternational.org/), a civil society organisation from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and this April I was invited by [Small Media](https://www.smallmedia.org.uk/), [CIPESA](https://cipesa.org/) and [DATA4CHANGE](http://www.data4chan.ge/) to travel to Geneva to represent digital rights on the global stage.

![Glenn, bronwen, arsene.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/riccardoerra/image/upload/v1644181194/Glenn_bronwen_arsene_a5805e4e29.png)
##### *From left to right: Glenn, Bronwen and Arsene*

The DRC is being reviewed this year for the 3rd time in May, and I was grateful to be able to attend the UPR-info Pre-Sessions that took place at the UN.

Before traveling to Geneva, Rudi International had worked with the [UPROAR](https://uproar.fyi/) network to develop a research paper focused on some digital rights key recommendations. It was then beautifully designed to become a great DRC briefing document that we would carry with us for the meetings in Geneva.

![factsheet.jpeg](https://res.cloudinary.com/riccardoerra/image/upload/v1644181262/factsheet_859516bedf.jpg)
##### *The fact sheet designed by Small Media*

I have to admit that for the DRC’s pre-session on the morning of Tuesday, April 2nd, our briefing document was the most beautiful, not only in terms of design but also because it touches on a really important topic that no one else in that room touched on: recommendations on digital rights in the Congo.

Even with that document ready in advance, just getting me to Geneva was a huge challenge. With my record as a globetrotter, flying to Geneva was yet another painful and stressful experience to add to the list.

I am based in Goma, eastern DRC and that’s where I was supposed to fly from…

![goma.jpeg](https://res.cloudinary.com/riccardoerra/image/upload/v1644181314/goma_a7a921fda9.jpg)
##### *City of Goma on the map!*

**Here is the story!**

**1. Acquiring my visa**
I have always struggled to get a visa to the EU. Not only have diplomatic relations between my country and the EU representation in Kinshasa (the capital city of the DRC) been worsening over the past two years (a story I am not planning to share here), I actually have to travel from Goma to Kinshasa in order to physically apply for a Schengen visa.

![goma to kinshasa.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/riccardoerra/image/upload/v1644181348/goma_to_kinshasa_8f9b546bf4.png)
##### *Map showing the journey from Goma to Kinshasa*

Thanks to the support from the UPROAR project, I was able to go to Kinshasa and apply for a visa at the Swiss Embassy. Another fact is that due to my extensive travels this year, I had just come back from a long trip to Kobe, Japan, for an ICANN meeting. I wasn’t able to give the Embassy the required time to process my visa, but they were super kind and agreed to process my visa application as a matter of urgency.

Because I could not stay in Kinshasa to wait for my visa, I flew back home and asked a colleague to collect my passport and deliver it to me in Goma.

**2. Traveling to Geneva**

Long story short, I was supposed to fly from Goma to Geneva on March 30th to arrive in Geneva on March 31st, and attend a training session hosted by UPR-info on April 1st.
I was expecting my passport to arrive on Friday, so that I could fly out on Saturday, but it didn’t arrive, so there was no way I could make my scheduled flight. My passport finally arrived in Goma on Sunday at 11:30am.

Next problem. Not many flights leave from Goma.

![goma airport.jpeg](https://res.cloudinary.com/riccardoerra/image/upload/v1644181413/goma_airport_0370bd77ae.jpg)
##### *Goma International Airport*

So I booked a flight from Kigali (in Rwanda!) that would depart on Sunday at 4.20pm. On a good day, it’s a four-hour drive from Goma to Kigali. Let’s just say (because this is the short version of the story) that I arrived at the airport 10 minutes before they were due to close the check-in counter.

I was tired but I was so glad I made it on time.

**3. The UPR Training**

So, my two 13-hour back-to-back flights arrived in Geneva at 7:30am on Monday, the very same day the training was happening. I immediately collected my bag and ran to my hotel, checked-in and dropped my stuff there, and then took the train to the UN building where I was supposed to get my accreditation.

With this being my first UPR experience, I was eager to attend this training. Because I arrived late, the French training session was full. The organizer’s thought that it was unlikely for a Congolese to speak English fluently, and thought I wouldn’t be able to attend after all. But I proved to them that I had the needed fluency!

It was 12.20pm when I finally entered the training room and found an amazing presentation by a US diplomat who was sharing his experience of engaging with the UPR process. Some of the things I recall from his speech:

- Civil society organisations need to work on their recommendations early enough and submit them ahead of time;
- Up to 3 specific and well-defined recommendations are okay, because diplomats have so little time and they need to hear straight to the point recommendations so they can see whether they can include them into their own to the state under review;
- I was also touched by the fact that he knew what was going on in my country and to hear about the issues his country cares about.

I learnt that these pre-sessions, convened by a Swiss nonprofit called [UPR-info](https://www.upr-info.org/en), are designed to help civil society organisations present recommendations on the specific issues they are working on to diplomats, and to learn to lobby the diplomats to consider including them in their own recommendations to the state under review.

Despite my fatigue, I closely followed his presentation and had a couple of remarks and questions related to my country, as well as all the lobbying activities happening in Geneva.

I asked:

*“Is it really worth traveling this far, spending energy, time, and resources to come to Geneva? Or should civil society organisations just focus their efforts and very limited resources on their own in-country advocacy work?”*

The diplomat helped me understand that both are important. Lobbying in Geneva helps the organisation meet and engage with diplomats based here and shows them what’s really happening on the ground, first-hand. That can really help the diplomats decide which issues to raise when they are making recommendations.

I had come to Geneva with recommendations developed by my organisation, Rudi International alongside other digital rights champions. After this presentation and the next training session, a more elaborate one describing the UPR process, I was ready and equipped with all I needed to take advantage of my time in Geneva.

My country, the DRC had the first pre-session on Tuesday at 9am and I was curious to meet the groups that would be speaking as well as to find out whether any representatives from my country’s permanent mission would show up in the room to listen and to speak.

During my next days of the week in Geneva, I’ll be focusing on meeting diplomats from permanent missions and speaking with them about the issues we care about.



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Rudi International’s Arsène Tungali made the long journey to Geneva to speak out for digital rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. So was it worth the trouble?

The Longest Journey to Geneva For My First UPR Experience

It’s time for countries planning to make recommendations on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to take a strong stance on digital rights issues.

395 recommendations were made to the DRC during the first (2009) and second (2014) Universal Periodic Review (UPR) cycles. The Congolese government supported more than 80% of the recommendations made. But none of these recommendations touched on human rights online.

In 2009 and 2014, human rights online may not have been priority issues in the DRC. But it’s now 2019, and so many human rights violations have happened online, hence the need for more attention on the state of digital rights in the Congo.

I am in Geneva this week and attended the UPR-info pre-session on the DRC on Tuesday April 2. There were six speakers on the stage, but none of them spoke about human rights in the online environment.

Some of the issues that were touched on included the fight against gender-based violence, the rights of minority groups including pygmies and the LGBTI community, and the protection of journalists and human rights defenders.

Of course, these are very important human rights issues that still require global attention too. Indeed, without free and open access to the internet, many of the human rights issues raised by the six speakers become even more imperilled.

![1_zCSXRObVqaJpEpzsT29oRw.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/riccardoerra/image/upload/v1643983664/1_z_CSXR_Ob_Vqa_Jp_Epzs_T29o_Rw_e1147baa83.png)


##### *Myself and Mr. Michal Dvorak, Human Rights Expert, Czech Republic*

**Human rights online are important!**

At [Rudi International](https://rudiinternational.org/), we believe that everyone should be entitled to the full enjoyment of their human rights everywhere, including online. And the situation of human rights online has been terrible in the Congo since the last UPR review nearly five years ago.

The DRC has tallied up a good number of internet freedom violations with communication disruptions (that include Internet and SMS shutdowns) topping the list. The most recent full shutdown of Internet and SMS in the DRC happened, on December 31, 2018, [right after the recent general elections](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-46721168) and [lasted 20 days!](https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/01/1029952)

**Lobbying for digital rights in Geneva**

On Wednesday morning I had the opportunity to meet with the Congolese Ambassador and head of the DRC Permanent Mission at the UN in Geneva, [Mr. Zenon Mukongo Ngay](https://www.linkedin.com/in/z%C3%A9non-mukongo-ngay-72192213).

During this meeting I mentioned many of these issues and encouraged him to champion this cause and use every opportunity he has to encourage the Congolese government to adopt internet freedom-friendly actions.

A copy of the advocacy document that we developed was given to him with the four top recommendations and he promised to consider them as he gets his own report ready for the review that will be held on May 7th.

![1_cKWuhN2fJz5z7x0Kf-2ovA.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/riccardoerra/image/upload/v1643983674/1_c_K_Wuh_N2f_Jz5z7x0_Kf_2ov_A_9bbc84096b.png)


##### *Ambassador Zenon and myself right after the meeting*

Other violations that Congolese citizens are facing include the surveillance and interception of communications and the censorship of some online media outlets. These violations are preventing them from fully enjoying their digital life. For a country with nearly 15% of its population being online, there is much the DRC can do to encourage more people to go online.

**Putting digital rights on the agenda**

Throughout the week, I have had the opportunity to meet with a dozen diplomats from different countries who have made recommendations to the DRC in previous UPR reviews and they have mentioned their willingness to make more this year.

Many of them said they plan on evaluating how many of their past recommendations have been implemented (after being supported by the DRC government) and/or will make new ones covering new emerging issues. Our ask was that they make sure they include the online aspect when redrafting past recommendations and add new ones that touch on these important digital rights issues.

We are aware that recommending countries are limited in the time they have on the floor at the UPR to make recommendations, and that the Congo has many issues going on that need to be addressed. But we are hopeful that the countries I met, as well as those I didn’t get to meet here in Geneva, will consider championing and joining our fight for digital rights in the DRC.

We have until the DRC is reviewed in May to evaluate the results of our lobbying in Geneva this week! Stay tuned.


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Rudi International’s Arsène Tungali sets out the case for the international community to make digital rights in the DRC a priority in the 33rd Universal Periodic Review

#UPR33: A Pressing Need for Digital Rights Recommendations for the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Cluster

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Stop internet shutdowns and promote freedom of expression and access to information online and offline.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is a country located in Central Africa with a population estimate of 95.2 million. Its 2005 Constitution provides for various human rights including the rights to expression, privacy, association and assembly and many more. Despite these constitutional guarantees, freedom of expression and civil liberties are subject to severe restrictions. Media groups face intense government censorship and surveillance. Journalists are frequently targeted with threats, physical attacks and arbitrary arrest. The government imposes internet shutdowns to control the flow of information. Multiple state-directed shutdowns have been documented since December 2011, and their increasing frequency poses a grave threat to freedom of expression and access to information in the DRC.

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

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Si Jeunesse Savait

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Ligue des droits de la personne humaine dans la région des Grands-Lacs

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Rudi International

DRC Factsheet.pdf

Democratic Republic of the Congo Factsheet

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Djibouti must do more to apply international human rights standards to its digital rights policies

Djibouti is a small country on the horn of Africa with a population estimate of 1 million. It gained independence from France in 1977 and its authoritarian President Ismail Omar Guelleh has been ruling the country since 1999, making him one of Africa’s longest-serving heads of state. 

Its 1992 Constitution (as amended) provides for the rights to freedom of expression, opinion, privacy, association, assembly and others. However, these rights and freedoms are severely restricted by the government. Journalists and media face threats, attacks and judicial harassment. The authorities further resort to deliberately slowing down the internet to restrict freedoms online. 

Djibouti

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Fixed Broadband Subscriptions per 100 inhabitants in 2018

Egypt’s media environment has deteriorated significantly since 2014, with the Sisi government engaging in pervasive censorship and surveillance.

Since Egypt’s last review, Field Marshal Abdel Fatteh el-Sisi’s government has intensified its crackdown on civil society and the media. The government’s approach has suffocated political opposition and civil society activity in Egypt, with journalists facing threats of dismissal or imprisonment for criticising state authorities. A state of emergency has been in effect since April 2017, expanding police powers of arrest and surveillance, and suspending many rights protections.

The Sisi government’s suppression of free expression has also extended into the online realm, with the 2018 Cybercrime Law and Media Regulation Law enabling far-reaching and disproportionate surveillance practices, and the censorship of online content.

The 2018 Media Regulation Law introduced sweeping powers enabling the state to regulate and censor online media, and stifle journalists and activists’ rights to free expression, free assembly and privacy, in clear violation of international human rights standards.

Egypt

Egypt.pdf

Egypt Factsheet.pdf

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Amend legislation restricting freedom of expression online and offline and adopt a robust data protection. 

Located in Eastern Africa, Ethiopia has a population of 120.8 million people. Its 1995 Constitution provides for fundamental rights including the rights to privacy, expression, press, association and assembly. Despite these constitutional guarantees of rights, the Ethiopian digital rights landscape is still a source of concern. A democratic transitional process that began in 2018 has been derailed by political violence, conflict in the Tigray region and ongoing state repression.

Various laws like the Freedom of the Mass Media and Access to Information (FMMAI) Proclamation, which criminalizes defamation, the Media Proclamation, Proclamation on Computer Crime all pose threats to digital rights. In addition to this, Ethiopia deploys internet shutdowns that have been carried out arbitrarily by government actors under the pretext of national security without compliance with international human rights law. Currently, Ethiopia does not have a data protection law. 

Ethiopia

Ethiopia was last reviewed in May, 2019. Their next review is in 9 months, which is scheduled for May, 2024. It is currently in the Building phase of its UPR cycle. To find out more about the UPR lifecycle click on the Uproar Tools button.

Ethiopia.pdf

Ethiopia Factsheet.pdf

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Gabon needs to amend the Communications Code to ensure that it is in line with international standards on freedom of expression.

Gabon is a country on the west coast of Africa and its population is 2 million. The government is a presidential republic however, there is a dominant party inheriting the government as president Ali Bongo Ondimba succeeded his father upon his death in 2009 after more than 40 years in power.

The 2017 communications code contains provisions that restricted media freedom, including an obligation for media to promote “the country’s image and national cohesion.” Therefore, self censorship in the media is common. There are also reports on internet shutdowns in Gabon and restricting access to information.

Gabon

OHCHR submission GABON_42_Small Media .pdf

Gabon factsheet.pdf

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Step up the protection of media practitioners and take steps to ensure accountability for crimes against journalists. 

Ghana is located in West Africa and has a population of 32.4 million people. It is one of Africa's most democratic countries and its 1992 constitution guarantees freedom of expression, access to information, and press and media freedoms. Internet users in Ghana enjoy a digital space that’s largely free from technical filtering and censorship. However, intimidation of dissenting voices, impunity for crimes committed against journalists and arrests and prosecutions targeting users, activists and journalists for their online activities remain a challenge. Additionally, privacy protections were eroded with the adoption of the 2020 Cybersecurity Law.

Ghana

Ghana factsheet.pdf

OHCHR Submission on Ghana_42_SMF.docx.pdf

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On November 8 2019, Iran underwent its third review at the Universal Periodic Review. In it, only two recommendations were made to Iran to address issues relating to human rights online, despite its long track record of systematically censoring expression and surveilling its citizens online.

Less than a week later, on 14 November,[ protests broke out ](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/16/protests-erupt-in-iran-after-government-raises-price-of-gas-by-50)in Iran after the announcement of a dramatic hike in petrol prices. Then, on 16 November the government [imposed a total internet shutdown](https://medium.com/filterwatch/iran-shutdown-monitor-ccd4cad2a681), cutting Iran off almost-completely from the outside world.

In the days that followed, at least 304 protestors were killed, and thousands more were detained by security forces, according to [a report ](https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/12/iran-thousands-arbitrarily-detained-and-at-risk-of-torture-in-chilling-post-protest-crackdown/)by Amnesty International.

The internet shutdown allowed the Iranian government to do this without videos and images making their way to the international media, thereby ensuring that citizens’ voices were silenced in the face of brutal state violence.

Digital rights advocates had raised concerns about Iran internet policies during the pre-sessions of Iran’s UPR. UPROAR spoke with **Kaveh Azarhoosh**, Advocacy and Policy Lead at Small Media, who discussed Iran’s record on digital rights with diplomats in Geneva ahead of the UPR.

Here’s what he had to say about the shutdown, his efforts in Geneva, and the need to put digital rights more firmly on the international community’s human rights agenda.

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**UPROAR:** *Hi Kaveh.You participated in the pre-session of the third cycle of Iran UPR. How did you plan for it? What was the most challenging issue for you in speaking about digital rights with state delegates?*

**Kaveh:** Going into the meetings we had a clear set of issues that we wanted to raise. Our strategy was to be strengthened by collaborating with other international advocacy groups, and by adopting the global language of digital rights.

The problem with talking about the Internet in Iran has always been that we are often warning policymakers about a really dark and unexpected future. Often policymakers fail to take our warnings seriously, precisely because we are warning about the scale of human rights abuse that is often difficult to imagine.

I was actually not that familiar with the UPR process myself before the pre-session, but my impression was that many successful conversions end up being about issues that are easy to understand and communicate in only a few minutes.

The problem is that when we talk about digital rights in Iran, we are talking about a complex set of policies and infrastructures. So there were times that I felt that, although we planned to fully brief participants about the depth of the problem, our warnings were either not understood fully, or ignored.

**UPROAR:** *Iran had its review session for the third cycle on 8 November at the UN, where 111 states made their recommendations. Hardly any of them included digital rights in their recommendations.*

The focus of recommendations was instead mainly on violence and discrimination against women, juvenile executions, and child marriage, among other issues.

In this context, where there are so many competing challenges, how important is it to include digital rights concerns in states’ recommendations?

**Kaveh:** I am so incredibly grateful that the issues that you have mentioned are getting the attention that they deserve. In my opinion, this is the result of decades of campaigning by some brilliant advocates.

When we talk about digital rights and safe and secure access to the internet, in reality, we are often advocating for an open society and human rights offline and online. It would be meaningless if we talked about digital rights and the issues you were mentioned were ignored.

But I also think that digital rights and freedom of expression online need to be essential to our understanding of some of the other human rights abuses, as internet shutdowns, surveillance, and censorship often disproportionately affect the most marginalised in society.

That’s why I wished that states also highlighted the effects of Iran’s digital policies on marginalised groups. I cannot hide the fact that we are disappointed that the issue of digital rights was not raised more clearly in recommendations, especially where it intersects with the issues you mentioned.

**UPROAR:** *In your discussions with countries’ delegations, how could you gauge their positions on digital rights? Did you have any particularly effective dialogues around digital rights?*

**Kaveh:** Issues such as privacy or digital transparency in one country can no longer be discussed in isolation — in fact, I think they never could be discussed in isolation. But as we see issues of internet governance and digital rights become more mainstream issues in all societies (even the open and democratic ones), I think countries often try to reflect on their own practices, and connect with commonalities when they are talking about digital rights in other nations. At least this was definitely the case in my discussions.

However, the danger is that by always trying to refer back to one’s own domestic debates, we overlook local nuances. I think that’s a danger when representatives from open societies try and relate to, or understand the seriousness of the digital rights threats that exist in states where there are significant human rights abuses.

To some extent, this was the case for Iran. When we spoke about the localisation of data and promotion of domestic services in Iran, this was not immediately understandable, and not comparable to similar projects taking place in countries where the right to privacy and freedom of expression is being protected.

**UPROAR:** *Only two countries ended up making explicit digital rights-related recommendations to Iran. How can we be better at convincing states to take digital rights more seriously, and include these issues in their recommendations?*

**Kaveh:** I’m really disappointed that the countries that have been vocal globally around online privacy and digital rights issues failed to explicitly submit recommendations on the declining digital rights situation in Iran, or speak about the threat posed by the country’s National Information Network.

Moving forward, we have to keep identifying states that consider themselves global leaders on these issues, and communicate the urgency of the situation in Iran much more clearly to them.

In particular, we need to be more clear about how so many of the threats facing minority rights and freedom of expression in Iran are directly related to declining digital rights and the emerging National Information Network.

**UPROAR:** *One week after their third UPR, Iran ordered a total internet shutdown amidst widespread anti-government protests. In the period that followed, Iran’s security forces killed*

**Kaveh:** First of all, the tragic events of November shows us that the warnings from the digital rights community were accurate, and we had all seen this coming and we had warned states and companies about Iran’s National Information Network.

The international community ignored the issue of digital rights during Iran’s UPR in November. UPROAR reflects on Iran’s UPR with Small Media’s Kaveh Azarhoosh.

A Deadly Silence on Digital Rights at Iran’s UPR

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