PRESS RELEASE : UN Human Rights Council 56 – Statement on Peaceful Assembly [July 2024]

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 1 July 2024.

UK Statement for the Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Peaceful Assembly. Delivered at the 56th HRC in Geneva.

Thank you Mr President.

We welcome the Special Rapporteur’s report and agree that the freedoms of peaceful assembly and association, both online and offline, are fundamental for safeguarding democracy, human rights and peace. These rights are essential to the functioning of society, providing a platform for citizens to advocate for positive change.

Nonetheless, civic space is increasingly contested as authoritarian governments and actors, who feel vulnerable to scrutiny and accountability, seek to silence dissent. We are deeply concerned by the threats to the rights: to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association across the globe.

These threats are often in the form of policies and rhetoric that undermine international contact, funding and networking, all of which are foundational to guaranteeing civic freedoms.

Special Rapporteur,

We recognise the vital role of civil society in promoting and protecting freedoms of peaceful assembly and of association.

What can the international community do to monitor the growing trend of governments using legislative and regulatory tools to isolate civil society internationally? And what can we do to promote networking and collaboration among civil society internationally?

Thank you.