Summary

In the present report, the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Gina Romero, addresses the threats to these rights posed by digital surveillance. Building on the previous work of the mandate, the report documents and reveals chilling effects associated with such surveillance, detailing the extensive interference with the effective exercise of assembly and association rights. It sets out how chilling effects should be incorporated into a human rights law analysis, centred around an acknowledgement of compound harms, and the prevailing surveillance ecosystem.