Today, in a historic first, UN member states adopted language by consensus recognizing the threat commercial spyware misuse poses to democratic values and the exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms during the 57th session of Human Rights Council. The adoption of this landmark language comes less than a month after the U.S. led an inaugural meeting on the margins of the UN General Assembly convening signatories to the Joint Statement on Efforts to Counter the Proliferation and Misuse of Commercial Spyware, including new members Austria, Estonia, Lithuania, and the Netherlands, and where the U.S. announced new actions expanding global commitments to counter commercial spyware.
Commercial spyware is increasingly misused to facilitate repression and enable human rights abuses, including intimidating political opponents and curbing dissent, limiting freedom of expression, and monitoring and targeting activists, human rights defenders, and journalists.
The language in this resolution recognizes the threat that the proliferation and misuse of commercial spyware poses to the exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms as well as democratic values, paving the way for further multilateral action. Passage of the internet freedom resolution with the consensus of all member states of the UN Human Rights Council builds off a 2023 Joint Statement in the Council signed by 59 countries affirming that surveillance technologies, including commercial spyware, must not enhance the capacity of governments to violate human rights.
Such human rights threats were showcased on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council during the United States’ flagship event this week, Defending Media Freedom in the 21st Century: Countering the Proliferation and Misuse of Commercial Spyware, featuring opening remarks by White House Deputy Assistant to the President Maher Bitar. This event featured a panel of journalists, legal and technical experts, and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to discuss the toll the proliferation and misuse of this technology has had on journalists, their sources, and media freedom writ large.
The United States will continue to work with members of the Human Rights Council, our growing coalition of partners who have joined the Joint Statement to Counter the Proliferation and Misuse of Commercial Spyware, the Media Freedom Coalition, and the Freedom Online Coalition, to stand with the victims of human rights abuses, establish guardrails on this technology, and hold those who misuse it accountable.