Each theme contains useful resources for lawyers on freedom of expression, click below to get started.
An overview of the multi-faceted right to freedom of expression and how it is protected under international law.
Understanding digital rights is crucial to protecting human rights, as little of our lives today is immune from the forces of technology and the internet.
An overview of the ways in which access to the internet and online content are restricted around the world.
An overview of freedom of expression issues in the law, including how defamation is treated in domestic and international law.
An overview of the right to privacy, data protection, and protecting freedom of expression in a digital world.
Describes the different types of cybercrimes, tracks the trends, and evaluates how cybercrimes are dealt with in international law.
An overview of hate speech and how it is dealt with both under domestic and international law.
An overview of the ways in which access to content and freedom of expression online are restricted by private actors.
An overview of false news, misinformation and propaganda, including causes and potential solutions..
An overview of the various rights and concepts which encompass digital rights.
Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation (SLAPPs) are vexatious and meritless legal action, often taken against journalists and human rights activists who have expressed a critical opinion. They are intended to distract from the reporting, intimidate and discourage them from voicing their opinions, and divert resources from public interest reporting to defending the abusive suits. SLAPPs…
The rise of digital platforms, online news reporting and social media has fuelled disinformation and online harassment, often targeting women journalists. Disinformation refers to information that is “falsely and deliberately created to harm a person, social group, organisation or country.” Often, this takes the form of spreading lies about a journalist’s character or work and…
The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice ordered Nigeria to repeal its cybercrime legislation which was held to violate the right to freedom of expression.
The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights found that Nigeria’s incarceration of an editor allegedly for participating in threats to national security was a violation of his rights.
The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice ruled that Nigeria’s banning of Twitter was unlawful and that access to Twitter is a “derivative right” that is “complementary to the enjoyment of the right to freedom of expression.”
The Court of Appeal in Lagos dismissed a challenge to the constitutionality of the Cybercrime Act, disagreeing with the Appellant that the provision was vague, overly broad and ambiguous, and threatened his rights to freedom of expression.
To help equip lawyers to promote freedom of expression we are sharing our West Africa Regional Mechanisms Training Manual which provides tools and advice on litigating in defence of freedom of expression in West Africa.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights argued that although the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights does not contain an express provision on the right to privacy, the right can – and should – be read into the African Charter through to the right to respect for life, the right to dignity,…
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights confirmed that there must be a legitimate reason for the limitation of right and that the limitation must be proportionate and necessary.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights found that no situation could justify a wholesale interference with freedom of expression, as was the case with the mass arrests and banning of publications that followed the 1993 presidential elections in Nigeria.