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21 February 2025
Digital platforms empower civic engagement and activism, but also pose serious risks, such as government surveillance, targeted cyberattacks, and sophisticated disinformation tactics. Ransomware attacks on healthcare systems, government networks, and infrastructure illustrate how cyber threats can disrupt essential services and national security. Disinformation campaigns, amplified by AI-generated deepfakes and bot-driven misinformation, have been used to shape political narratives, weaken trust in democratic institutions, and incite social divisions.
Our latest research brief ‘Behind the Lens: Exploring the Problematic Intersection of Surveillance, Cyber Targeting, and Disinformation’ examines the complex relationship between digital technologies and their misuse in surveillance, cyberattacks, and disinformation campaigns. This joint study written by Erica Harper, Jonathan Andrew, Florence Foster, Joshua Niyo, Beatrice Meretti and Catherine Sturgess details how the increasing reliance on digital systems has made them primary targets and tools for controlling societies - with deep implications for human rights, human agency and global security.
Using global examples the authors highlight the role of technology companies in regulating these threats, and emphasize the need for a balanced approach that preserves digital freedoms while implementing safeguards. The research brief concludes by outlining policy recommendations for governments to enforce rights-based regulations, private companies to enhance transparency and ethical oversight, and civil society to advocate for digital rights.
This report is part of the Academy’s broader work related to new technologies, digitalization, and big data. Our research in this domain explores whether these new developments are compatible with exis ting rules and whether international human rights law and IHL continue to provide the level of protection they should.
News
Adobe
Our new series of Research Briefs examine the impact of digital disinformation and potential solutions for its regulation
News
Adobe
Our recent research brief series explores how the United Nations' human rights system can enhance its role in early warning and conflict prevention.
Event
LATSIS Symposium
This interactive, two-part workshop will explore how modern data-science tools – including machine learning and AI – can be leveraged to support the United Nations in promoting and protecting human rights.
Event
Wikimedia
This evening dialogue will present the publication: International Human Rights Law: A Treatise, Cambridge University Press (2025).
Training
Participants in this training course will be introduced to the major international and regional instruments for the promotion of human rights, as well as international environmental law and its implementation and enforcement mechanisms.
Training
Adobe
This training course, specifically designed for staff of city and regional governments, will explore the means and mechanisms through which local and regional governments can interact with and integrate the recommendations of international human rights bodies in their concrete work at the local level.
Project
UN Photo / Jean-Marc Ferré
Project
CCPR Centre
The Geneva Human Rights Platform collaborates with a series of actors to reflect on the implementation of international human rights norms at the local level and propose solutions to improve uptake of recommendations and decisions taken by Geneva-based human rights bodies at the local level.
Publication
