Interactive Dialogue with Clément Nyaletsossi Voule,
Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association
Statement by the United States of America
Human Rights Council, 47th Session
Statement Read by Deputy Assistant Secretary Allison Lombardo
Thank you, Special Rapporteur Voule for your efforts to advance freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. We strongly support your mandate.
Over the last year, we have seen governments substantially restrict these freedoms, including in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burma, Hong Kong, Nicaragua, Russia, Turkey, and Uganda.
We are troubled by the use of the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to restrict freedom of assembly and association globally, including in Malaysia and Thailand. We encourage countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia to strengthen protections of these rights.
Limiting people’s ability to peacefully protest and organize to influence government policies reduces stability, transparency, and accountability and opens a door for corruption that affects society as a whole. This highlights the importance of having a mechanism that monitors challenges to these fundamental freedoms and provides recommendations on how to safeguard them.
Question: How are attacks on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association in state-specific contexts to be addressed by the international community?