Today, on 16 June 2025, the 59th Session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC59) began in Geneva. Over the next three weeks, States will debate and act on major human rights concerns, with significant implications for the protection of the right to freedom of expression and related rights across the globe. ARTICLE 19 will be advocating for progressive international standards, including in new resolutions on the safety of journalists and new and emerging digital technologies, as well as in discussions on elections and artificial intelligence. At the same time, we will make statements on the human rights situation in many countries, including in Belarus and Myanmar.
This blog outlines our advocacy priorities for the session. During HRC59, follow @article19.bsky.social for live updates and use #HRC59 to join the discussion. You can also check out our full coverage of the session here.
Safety of journalists
Austria – with a core group of Brazil, France, Greece, Morocco, Qatar, and Tunisia – will lead a new resolution on the safety of journalists at the session. This is part of a series of resolutions on the topic, with the last iteration adopted back in 2022, which have developed a strong set of international human rights standards to prevent, protect and remedy all human rights violations against journalists. However, it must now be updated to respond to the challenges of the day.
Worldwide, we are seeing powerful politicians and wealthy business people continue to file strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) to harass journalists who expose their corruption and wrongdoings. We will be advocating for the resolution to build on previous commitments on SLAPPs and to now include more specific recommendations on solutions to prevent and mitigate the effects of these abusive lawsuits, including by allowing early dismissal of unfounded proceedings, upholding the protection and defence of public interest, ending forum shopping, and ensuring sufficient awareness-raising and capacity-building for the judiciary to identify and appropriately address such cases.
The use of surveillance technologies, including spyware and biometric technologies like facial recognition, is continuing to have severe chilling effect on the media, deterring journalists from covering sensitive topics, engaging in investigative reporting, or communicating with vulnerable sources. We will be working to ensure the resolution scales up its recommendations on this issue, including urging governments to ensure biometric technologies are not used for mass surveillance. It must also urge surveillance technology companies to conduct and publicly disclose robust human rights due diligence for all proposed transfers of surveillance technology and refrain from exporting surveillance technology if there is a significant risk it will be used to commit human rights violations and abuses.
Across the globe, women journalists face pervasive and uniquely gendered risks when carrying out their vital work. They face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, including when stemming from their race, religion, nationality, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, and other protected characteristics. We will push for the resolution to explicitly address these multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination.
New and emerging digital technologies
Austria, Brazil, Denmark, Morocco, Singapore, and the Republic of Korea will present a new resolution on new and emerging digital technologies. Now in its third iteration, this resolution contains language on broad approaches and principles governing the use of new and emerging digital technologies, while aiming to ensure synergies on this issue across the UN.
We have long warned of a potential race to the bottom when it comes to embracing new and emerging digital technologies, where the promotion and protection of human rights are sidelined in the name of innovation. As such, we will be working to ensure this new resolution calls on governments to uphold international human rights law throughout the life cycle of digital and emerging technologies, and for businesses to ensure robust human rights due diligence and impact assessments. We will also work to ensure the resolution explicitly recognises that certain new and emerging digital technologies cannot comply with international human rights law.
There are now a growing number of initiatives on new and emerging digital technologies across the UN and it is essential to ensure consistency. We will support efforts by the core group to ensure that the resolution mandates the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) with a greater role in coordination and collaboration on this issue, including through convening regular and high-level meetings, to guarantee a coherent, human rights-first approach.
Elections
The Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression and the Special Rapporteur on the freedom of peaceful assembly and association will both present annual reports on elections at the session. Both reports provide lessons learnt and recommendations from the 2023 –2025 ‘super electoral cycle’ during which more than 50 countries went to the polls.
The interdependent rights to freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly are essential for guaranteeing genuine elections and sustaining democracy. However, it is in election periods where government officials feel emboldened to ramp up censorship and crackdown on dissent. In a world of growing authoritarianism, the findings of these reports are essential. We will be making statements in the interactive dialogue of each reports to express our full support and to urge governments and other relevant stakeholders to fully implement their recommendations.
Artificial Intelligence
The Working Group on human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises will also be presenting their annual report on artificial intelligence procurement and deployment.
Worldwide, transnational corporations and other business enterprises are at the forefront of embracing artificial intelligence, yet too often fail to adequately respect human rights in their work. We will make a statement in the interactive dialogue on the report to support its recommendations and once again call for human rights impact assessments and due diligence processes throughout the life cycle of artificial intelligence systems, with specific measures to ensure the protection of journalists, human rights defenders, and other civil society actors.