©ISHR
ISHR attended RightsCon 2025, the largest global summit on technology and human rights issues, throughout it one clear message stood out: more should be done to protect human rights defenders on and offline and tech companies should be held accountable when their activities contribute human right violations.
From 24 to 27 of February, the 13th edition of RightsCon took place in Taipei, Taiwan, bringing together human rights defenders, business leaders, government representatives and journalists to discuss issues at the intersection of technology, the digital world and human rights.
RigthsCon was also a space to share how technology can support the work of human right defenders and civil society organizations, including developments to improve their security, improve documentation and combat surveillance. The forum also discussed the responsibility of tech companies for human rights abuses, including their obligation to protect human right defenders, ranging from regulations of online platforms and combating hate speech, to their complicity for atrocity crimes.
Alongside human rights defenders and other civic society organisations, ISHR participated in different activities to reiterate the importance protecting human rights defenders in and out of digital spaces and of holding tech companies accountable when they fell short of upholding their responsibilities in this respect.
ISHR, the Business and Human Rights Resource Center and the B Team acting as Secretariat of the Business Network on Civic Freedoms and Human Rights Defenders, organised a private workshop between human rights defenders, civil society organisations and representatives of technology companies to discuss ways to improve stakeholder engagement between them with.
With the aim of opening a space for human rights defenders and civic society organisations to start or build on existing relationships with company representatives and explore collaborative solutions by reviewing past stakeholder experiences, their good practices and challenges. During this session, defenders highlighted that it is difficult to trust companies when their promises are not accompanied by meaningful and concrete actions.
Digital spaces have played an important role in exacerbating ethnic violence and colonial aggression, and Indigenous communities face particular issues in their struggle to hold tech companies accountable .
Palestinian digital rights organisation 7amleh held a session to discuss how companies like Meta, Google, and X (formerly Twitter) have facilitated or exacerbated human rights violations, including atrocity crimes and acts of genocide, through the spread of hate speech, disinformation and incitement to violence. This event centered the experiences of human rights defenders from Palestine, Myanmar, the Tigray region of Ethiopia, and China’s Uyghur region (Xinjiang) .
‘Governments, technology companies and other stakeholders should not be complicit in the genocide of the Uyghur people by remaining silent about the Chinese government’s atrocities, or even enabling them by providing technology or other benefits,’ said Haiyuer Kuerban, Director of the Berlin Office of the World Uyghur Congress, after the 7amleh session.
Several events at RightsCon tackled rights violations in the digital space at the hands of the Chinese government. Counting on the expertise of a wide range of Chinese, Uyghur, Hong Kong, Tibetan and international activists, these events addressed issues such as digital transnational repression, the export of China’s digital authoritarian model along its ‘Digital Silk Road‘, China’s ‘Great Firewall’ and its social media censorship mechanisms, banning of virtual private networks (VPNs), and human rights-based responses to the challenges posed by TikTok and other initiatives that contribute to spreading misinformation.
As we reflect on the discussions at RightsCon 2025, it is clear that stronger protections for human rights defenders—both on and offline—must remain at the forefront of global advocacy efforts. The 58th session of the Human Rights Council is a critical opportunity to push for concrete commitments in this regard.
ISHR, along with other civil society organisations, has published an open letter urging States to ensure a strong and action-oriented resolution that addresses the protection of human rights defenders from emerging risks that have arisen from new technologies and changing online spaces.
This resolution should call for States to uphold their obligations and for tech companies to take meaningful responsibility when their platforms and policies contribute to human rights violations.
In this context, we also invite stakeholders to join our Side Event on 7 March, during which we will further discuss these rising challenges for human rights defenders and remind States of their obligations in this field.
Civil society urges States to ensure a resolution at the upcoming 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council addresses the protection of human rights defenders from emerging risks resulting from technological trends and shifting online spaces.
Civil society in the Americas has issued an urgent call to accelerate the implementation of the Plan of Action on Human Rights Defenders of the Escazú Agreement, which was adopted five months ago.
On 21st May 2024, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Commission) examined the combined periodic reports of the Republic of Mozambique during its public ordinary session held from 14 May to 3rd June in hybrid mode. The report presents the progress made by Mozambique to effectively implement the African Charter between 2015 and 2021.
