Watch Video Here  (Spanish) 

Violence against journalists and human rights defenders has been on the rise in the last decade. With this in mind, Global Freedom of Expression at Columbia University (GFoE) has worked to expand its case law database with coordinated research seeking to capture and highlight judicial trends around the world. Senior researchers studied and explored new judicial decisions related to violence against journalists, pinpointing those that upheld international human rights standards and held states accountable for their actions and their obligation to prevent, protect, and punish those crimes. To promote the findings of the project, GFoE will be hosting a workshop series to train lawyers, journalists, and activists on regional jurisprudence, international human rights standards, and best practices. Each workshop in the series will focus on a different region(s) from around the world and allow speakers to share their perspectives on this important challenge and its impact on the future of democracy. 

The first workshop in this series will focus on the regional findings in Latin America. Speakers will discuss the human rights standards for the protection of journalists in the Inter-American system and states’ best practices. In particular, speakers will discuss the rich history of Latin American case law on the issue of violence against journalists, focusing on the cases of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Participants will analyze the more relevant precedents as well as the latest trends, including the significant decision by the Inter-American Court on the case of Jineth Bedoya v. Colombia, that has recently developed the standards on matters of violence against women journalists. 

In the following months, GFoE will continue to host the series of six workshops focused on judicial trends and violence against journalists in Europe, Asia, Middle East & Africa (MENA) as well as a workshop on universal human rights standards. These workshops will address specificities in these regions, such as the leading role of the European Court of Human Rights in Europe, – defining some of the cornerstones of these standards such as e.g. the conditions under which the duty to protect emerge in contexts of risk – the scarce case law in the United Nations case system as well as other tendencies in regions such as Africa or Asia. 

​​Join GFoE on Thursday, January 27 from 10:00-11:15 AM (ET) to learn more. Speakers include Ramiro Alvarez Ugarte, Senior Researcher at Centro de Estudios en Libertad de Expresión (CELE); Catalina Botero, Global Freedom of Expression; Carlos Gaio, Senior Legal Officer, Media Defence; Taís Gasparian, Senior Attorney, Legal team of the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (ABRAJI); Leopoldo Maldonado, Regional Director, ARTICLE 19 Mexico; and Emmanuel Vargas, Co-Director, El Veinte.

Please note the conversation will take place in English and Spanish. There will be simultaneous interpretation available on Zoom. English subtitles will be added to the YouTube video after the event.

Moderator:

• Ramiro Alvarez Ugarte, Senior Researcher, Centro de Estudios en Libertad de Expresión (CELE)

Speakers:

• Catalina Botero, Global Freedom of Expression (GFoE)
• Carlos Gaio, Senior Legal Officer, Media Defence
• Taís Gasparian, Senior Attorney, Legal team for the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (ABRAJI)
• Leopoldo Maldonado, Regional Director, ARTICLE 19 Mexico
• Emmanuel Vargas, Co-Director, El Veinte

Watch Video Here  (Spanish)