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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 second workshop in this series will focus on the universal human rights standards and existing international case-law related to the protection of journalists. Speakers will discuss this issue from the perspective of the United Nations as well as the Inter-American and the European systems of human rights. They will also share their viewpoints on the main global challenges to freedom of expression related to violence against journalists.

GFoE will continue to host the series of six workshops focused on judicial trends and violence against journalists in Europe, Asia, and Middle East & Africa (MENA). Our workshop on Latin America took place in January 2022, and it can be found on our YouTube linked here. 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. 

Please note the conversation will take place in English. 

Moderator:

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

Welcome Remarks:

• Catalina Botero, Global Freedom of Expression (GFoE)

Speakers:

• Toby Mendel, Executive Director, Centre for Law and Democracy
• Joel Simon, Fellow for Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Columbia Journalism School
• Silvia Chocarro, Global Head of Protection, ARTICLE 19