United Nations

The United Nations is the largest intergovernmental organisation in the world, and has the promotion and protection of human rights among its core objectives.

Through its various political bodies, including the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and UN Human Rights Council (HRC), UN Member States make commitments on how they will protect freedom of expression at the national level, as well as agreeing collective action in response to the world’s most pressing human rights issues.

ARTICLE 19 shapes and ensures support for standard-setting initiatives on freedom of expression at the UN, informing our advocacy through the local and national human rights priorities of our regional offices and partners.   We leverage various UN human rights mechanisms to hold states to account for freedom of expression violations. This includes through the UNGA and HRC, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and UN special procedures, in particular the Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, the treaty bodies, and the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism. In turn, our national advocacy work uses the obligations and commitments of States’ at the UN to drive local change.