Protest and Human Rights Standards on the Rights Involved in Social Protest and the Obligations to Guide the Response of the State
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OEA/SER.L/V/II CIDH/RELE/INF.22/19 September 2019 Original: Spanish Protest and Human Rights Standards on the rights involved in social protest and the obligations to guide the response of the State Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Edison Lanza Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression 2019 OAS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression. Protesta y derechos humanos / Relatoría Especial para la Libertad de Expresión de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos. v. ; cm. (OAS. Documentos oficiales ; OEA/Ser.L/V/II) ISBN 978-0-8270-6938-1 1. Protest movements--America. 2. Human rights--America. I. Lanza, Edison. II. Title. III. Series. OEA/Ser.L/V/II CIDH/RELE/INF.22/19 This report was supported, in part, through a grant from the open society foundations. INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS Members Margarette May Macaulay Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño Francisco José Eguiguren Praeli Luis Ernesto Vargas Silva Joel Hernández García Antonia Urrejola Flávia Piovesan Executive Secretary Paulo Abrão Assistant Executive Secretary for Monitoring, Promotion and Technical Cooperation Maria Claudia Pulido Chief of Staff of the Executive Secretary of the IACHR Marisol Blanchard Vera TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I GUIDING PRINCIPLES ..................................................................................................................................................... 3 CHAPTER II APPLICABLE LEGAL FRAMEWORK .......................................................................................................................... 9 1. RIGHTS INVOLVED ................................................................................................................................................................ 11 2. LEGITIMATE RESTRICTIONS TO THE RIGHTS INVOLVED IN DEMONSTRATIONS AND PROTESTS ................................ 14 3. PRINCIPLE OF NONDISCRIMINATION .................................................................................................................................. 21 CHAPTER III OBLIGATION TO RESPECT RIGHTS ...................................................................................................................... 25 1. THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN PROTEST WITHOUT PRIOR AUTHORIZATION .............................................................. 27 2. THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE THE CONTENT AND MESSAGES OF THE PROTEST ..................................................................... 29 3. THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE THE TIME AND PLACE OF THE PROTEST .................................................................................... 31 4. THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE THE MODE OF PROTEST; SCOPE OF THE PROVISION ON “PEACEFUL UNARMED EXERCISE”33 CHAPTER IV OBLIGATION TO PROTECT AND FACILITATE ................................................................................................... 37 1. USE OF FORCE IN THE CONTEXT OF PROTESTS .................................................................................................................. 41 2. MAXIMUM RESTRICTION ON FIREARMS ............................................................................................................................. 44 a) Acquisition, use, and control of less lethal weapons ................................................................................... 46 b) Arrests ............................................................................................................................................................................ 48 c) Evictions ........................................................................................................................................................................ 51 d) Forced dispersal or break-up ............................................................................................................................... 54 3. POLICE OPERATIONS, PROTOCOLS, AND INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE SECURITY FORCES AND EXCLUSION OF THE ARMED FORCES .......................................................................................................................................................................... 55 4. DIALOGUE AND NEGOTIATION BODIES ............................................................................................................................... 61 5. THE DUTY TO NOT CRIMINALIZE LEADERS AND PARTICIPANTS IN DEMONSTRATIONS AND PROTESTS ................... 62 a) The creation of broad, vague, or ambiguous criminal offenses in violation of the principle of legality ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 64 b) Criminal definitions that violate inter-American standards by punishing activities of social protest ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 66 c) The formalistic and broad application of the criminal law to criminalize social protest ......... 67 d) Failure to observe fundamental guarantees ................................................................................................. 69 e) Prohibition of arbitrary arrests .......................................................................................................................... 71 f) Intelligence ................................................................................................................................................................... 73 g) Stigmatization and criminalization in the speech of political leaders............................................... 74 CHAPTER V OBLIGATION TO GUARANTEE RIGHTS ................................................................................................................. 77 1. THE DUTY TO INVESTIGATE, PROSECUTE, AND PUNISH .................................................................................................... 80 a) Judicial investigation and penalties .................................................................................................................. 81 b) Administrative investigation and penalties ................................................................................................... 87 2. RESPONSE FROM THE AUTHORITIES .................................................................................................................................. 90 3. MONITORING AND OBSERVATION OF PROTESTS............................................................................................................... 91 CHAPTER VI PROTESTS AND THE INTERNET ........................................................................................................................... 93 CHAPTER VII ACCESS TO INFORMATION .................................................................................................................................... 99 CHAPTER VIII STATES OF EMERGENCY .................................................................................................................................... 105 CHAPTER IX CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...................................................................................................... 111 FOREWORD Foreword | 1 FOREWORD Social protest is a core element for the existence and consolidation of democratic societies and is protected by a constellation of rights and freedoms, which the inter-American system guarantees both in the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and in the American Convention on Human Rights. Indeed, the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association guarantee and protect various forms—individual and collective—of publicly expressing opinions, dissenting, demanding compliance with social, cultural, and environmental rights, and affirming the identity of groups that have historically been discriminated against. Protest also plays a central role in defending democracy and human rights. According to the instruments of the inter-American system, the joint exercise of these fundamental rights makes the free exercise of democracy possible. The region, far from offering a picture of consensus regarding the protection of demonstrations and protests, has been—and continues to be—the scene of repression, dispersal, and limitation of the exercise of these rights in the public sphere, the product of a deep-rooted conception that considers citizen mobilization to be a form of disruption of the public order or, even worse, a threat to the stability of democratic institutions. Hence, a central objective of this report, prepared by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and its Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, is to contribute to a better understanding of State obligations aimed at guaranteeing, protecting, and facilitating public protests and demonstrations, as well as the standards that should frame the progressive use of force—and as a last resort—in protest contexts. This report also acknowledges that in different circumstances protests cause disruption and affect the normal course of other activities—but this fact does not make these forms of expression per se illegitimate. It is based on the fact that one of the functions of protest is to channel and amplify the demands, aspirations,