SIHR Submission to OHCHR’s Consultation on Protecting Human Rights Defenders in the Digital Age

Skyline International for Human Rights (SIHR) has submitted its contribution to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) call for inputs on the protection of human rights defenders in the digital age, in response to Human Rights Council Resolution 58/23.

Across the Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region, HRDs and journalists face an intensifying convergence of threats in the digital space. Our submission documents how artificial intelligence, surveillance infrastructure, cybercrime legislation, and platform failures are being deployed—separately and together—to silence, discredit, and, in some cases, kill those who defend human rights.

In Gaza, AI-powered targeting systems and drone surveillance have been integrated into lethal military operations, with Palestinian journalists and HRDs killed in strikes where their digital footprint formed part of the targeting infrastructure. Technology companies including Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have knowingly provided the cloud and AI infrastructure enabling these operations with no demonstrated human rights safeguards. Internet shutdowns imposed at the onset of each military operation have systematically erased the documentation capacity of the press, ensuring that atrocities committed during genocide remain invisible and unaccountable.

Beyond Palestine, our submission documents the systematic use of cybercrime and state security laws to criminalize online expression across the region. In Kuwait, a blogger was sentenced to 15 years' hard labor for posts on social media. In Tunisia, a lawyer faces 20 years across three trials under Decree-Law 54. In Morocco, a youth activist had her phone seized at the airport and was forced to unlock her private data for a criminal investigation into her social media posts. In Egypt, women are being imprisoned for their presence on TikTok.

The submission also documents the cross-border spread of these repressive practices: Gulf states coordinating near-identical crackdowns on civilian documentation during the Iran conflict; the same digital forensic tools from Cellebrite and NSO Group deployed against HRDs across Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, and the UAE; and the incitement infrastructure built around Palestinian journalists in Gaza being replicated against journalists covering Palestinian rights in the United Kingdom.

SIHR calls on the OHCHR to mandate accountability for AI-assisted targeting of HRDs, issue guidance on the misuse of cybercrime laws, press for a global moratorium on spyware and digital forensic tools, and affirm that internet shutdowns violate the rights to freedom of expression and access to information.

About SIHR
Skyline International for Human Rights (SIHR) is a non-profit organization dedicated to defending digital freedoms across the Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region. Through monitoring, in-depth research, and advocacy, SIHR documents digital rights violations spanning government surveillance, platform censorship, digital freedoms, and the lethal use of artificial intelligence.