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	Freedom of thought increasingly violated worldwide by Ahmed Shaheed, Dr. Marcos Orellana Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief   As new technologies are increasingly used to force people to reveal or alter their thoughts, a human rights expert has called on the United Nations to clarify the scope and content of the right to freedom of thought.   “Counter-terrorism measures, ‘re-education’ programmes, torture, forcible administration of psychoactive drugs, and other coercive mental health practices may be used without permission to alter people’s thoughts, or to force them to reveal their thoughts,” Ahmed Shaheed, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, told the UN General Assembly.   “Major developments in digital technology, neuroscience, and cognitive psychology may have unprecedented consequences for the privacy and integrity of our thoughts,” he said as he presented his report on freedom of thought, which makes recommendations to multilateral, State and non-State actors on how to respect, protect and promote freedom of thought.   Freedom of thought is an absolute right that is enshrined in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, alongside the distinct yet equal freedoms of conscience and religion or belief, Shaheed said.   “It is foundational for many other rights and it can be neither restricted nor derogated from, even during public emergencies, yet is a largely unexplored right,” he said. “I encourage the UN human rights system to further clarify the freedom’s scope and content.”   Freedom of thought “is not only imperative in one’s freedom to choose, develop or change convictions, but also fundamental in thinking on all matters independently of religion or belief systems,” said Shaheed. http://undocs.org/A/76/380 http://www.context.news/digital-rights/hands-off-my-brainwaves-latin-america-in-race-for-neurorights http://neurorightsfoundation.org/chile http://neurorightsfoundation.org/mission   Sep. 2021   Disinformation on scientific evidence about toxic substances a tool to manipulate the public   A UN human rights expert today urged States to follow the science with respect to exposure to toxic substances, calling out companies that manipulate information to keep their products on the market.   Disinformation about scientific evidence on hazardous substances has become a powerful tool for manipulating public understanding and debate, generating confusion and doubt and resulting in mistrust in science, UN Special Rapporteur on hazardous substances and wastes Marcos Orellana told the Human Rights Council.   "Certain businesses specialize in purposefully sowing uncertainty and misunderstanding in society, in direct violation of the right to science," he said.   "Denial, misdirection, and distortion tactics are used to keep products on the market despite the risks and harms they pose. This is taking place at the expense of proper protections for human rights."   "The right to science requires that governments adopt and align measures to prevent exposure to hazardous substances on the basis of the best available scientific evidence."   The right to science also requires that governments take steps to correct the public record or issue clarifications when scientific information is misrepresented.   He emphasized that scientific breakthroughs regarding harmful substances or processes should lead governments to adopt effective and timely measures to provide protection to their populations.   "The right to science implies an enabling environment where scientific freedoms may be realized and where governments promote and support scientific research on toxic substances that endanger public health and the environment," Orellana said.   The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes the right to the benefits of scientific development and its applications. The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights expands on this fundamental right.   The right to science implies that scientific information be available and accessible, and it enables the development of evidence-based policies to address threats posed by hazardous substances.   Orellana's report highlights how States and other stakeholders should join efforts to establish a global science-policy interface platform on chemicals and waste that is free of conflicts of interest. Such a platform could raise global awareness of the serious toxification of the planet, identify emerging issues of concern and produce authoritative scientific assessments to prevent exposure to harmful chemicals and waste.   "In the specific context of toxic substances, the right to science provides humanity with tools to confront the severe toxification of the planet and overcome the triple environmental crisis of pollution, climate change and loss of nature," he said. http://undocs.org/A/HRC/48/61 Visit the related web page
	The Pegasus Project: A Worldwide Collaboration to Counter a Global Crime by Forbidden Stories, Amnesty, news agencies   July 2021   The Pegasus Project: A Worldwide Collaboration to Counter a Global Crime, by Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud   Today, for the first time in the history of modern spying, we are seeing the faces of the victims of targeted cyber-surveillance. This is a worldwide scandal – a global web of surveillance whose scope is without precedent.   The attack is invisible. Once “infected,” your phone becomes your worst enemy. From within your pocket, it instantly betrays your secrets and delivers your private conversations, your personal photos, nearly everything about you. This surveillance has dramatic and in some cases even life-threatening consequences for the ordinary men and women who have been targeted for their work exposing the misdeeds of their rulers or defending the rights of their fellow citizens.   All of these individuals were targeted by states using the same spyware tool, “Pegasus,” sold by the NSO Group.   Our mission at Forbidden Stories is to pursue – collaboratively – the work of threatened, jailed or assassinated journalists.   For the Pegasus Project, we investigated this new threat against press freedom for months, working alongside more than 80 journalists from 17 media organizations.   This investigation began with enormous leak of documents that Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International had access to. In this list of more than 50,000 selected as targets by clients of NSO Group, we even found the names of some of our colleagues, journalists we had worked with on past investigations.   But the scale of this scandal could only be uncovered by journalists around the world working together. By sharing access to this data with the other media organisations in the Forbidden Stories consortium, we were able to develop additional sources, collect hundreds of documents and put together the harrowing evidence of a surveillance apparatus that has been wielded ferociously against large swaths of civil society – outside of all legal restrictions.   Among the targets: human rights defenders, political opponents, lawyers, diplomats, and heads of state – not to mention almost 200 journalists from nearly two dozen countries. Some are local reporters, others renowned television anchors.   Many investigate corruption and political scandals that threaten the highest levels of power. Most already face censorship and intimidation. But few of them could have imagined having been the target of such an invisible and invasive form of surveillance.   The list of journalists hacked by Pegasus is long: award-winning Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova; reporter Szabolcs Panyi from Direkt36, an Hungarian investigative media outlet, freelance Morrocan journalist Hicham Mansouri; the director of the French investigative site Mediapart Edwy Plenel; and the founders of the Indian independent media The Wire, one of the few news organizations in the country that does not rely on money from private business entities.   For NSO Group’s government clients, Pegasus is the perfect weapon to “kill the story”. Invasive surveillance of journalists and activists is not simply an attack on those individuals – it is a way to deprive millions of citizens of independent information about their own governments.   When they hack a journalist’s phone, they are able to extract the most sensitive information that it holds. What was that journalist working on? Who are their sources? Where are they stashing their documents? Who are their loved ones? What private information could be used to blackmail and defame them?   Journalists have long thought that new technologies – the armada of encrypted communications that they rely on – were their allies, critical blockades against censorship.   With the existence of cyber surveillance tools as advanced as Pegasus, they have been brutally awoken to the fact that the greatest threats are hiding in the places they once thought to be the safest.   The Pegasus Project poses important questions about the privatization of the surveillance industry and the lack of global safeguards for everyday citizens.   When a threat as large as this emerges, imperiling fundamental rights like the right to free speech, journalists need to come together. If one reporter is threatened or killed, another can take over and ensure that the story is not silenced.   Forty-five years ago, the first collaborative journalism project was launched after the murder of Don Bolles, a journalist in Phoenix, Arizona. In 2018, Forbidden Stories coordinated the Daphne Project in the wake of the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta.   We have continued to pursue the work of journalists who have been murdered for their work – whether that was investigating environmental scandals or tracking Mexican drug cartels – alongside dozens of news organizations.   The collaboration of journalists from around the world is without a doubt one of the best defenses against these violent attacks on global democracy.   http://forbiddenstories.org/pegasus-the-new-global-weapon-for-silencing-journalists/ http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/07/the-pegasus-project/ http://www.amnesty.org/en/petition/targeted-surveillance-human-rights-defenders/ http://www.theguardian.com/news/series/pegasus-project http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2021/07/18/takeaways-nso-pegasus-project/ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/topic/pegasus-project/ http://www.icj.org/joint-open-letter-by-civil-society-organizations-and-independent-experts-calling-on-states-to-implement-an-immediate-moratorium-on-the-sale-transfer-and-use-of-surveillance-technology/ http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/nov/23/apple-sues-israeli-cyber-firm-nso-group http://citizenlab.ca/2021/09/democracy-now-nso-group-spies-secretly-seized-control-of-apple-devices-by-exploiting-flaw-in-code/ http://citizenlab.ca/2023/04/spyware-vendor-quadream-exploits-victims-customers/   http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/07/the-pegasus-project-one-year-on-spyware-crisis-continues-after-failure-to-clamp-down-on-surveillance-industry/ http://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/researchers-discover-that-android-devices-sold-in-china-collect-distribute-sensitive-data-without-user-consent/ http://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/global-46-organisations-call-on-states-to-prioritise-protections-against-spyware-during-the-2023-summit-for-democracy/ http://carnegieendowment.org/programs/democracy/commercialspyware http://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/06/03/2023/understanding-incentives-driving-digital-repression Visit the related web page
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