On February 25 to 27, 2026, a delegation of civil society organizations from the Middle East and North Africa conducted a joint advocacy mission at the 61st session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva (HRC61). The mission was led by Innovation for Change MENA Hub (I4C MENAI Hub) in partnership with 7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, alongside participating organizations HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement, Smart Gov, and Wasl for Human Rights Tunisia. Serving as a cornerstone of the Digital Democracy Initiative (DDI) MENA, this regional advocacy initiative aimed to empower civil society actors, human rights defenders, journalists, and reform advocates operating in increasingly restrictive environments within international policy discussion fora.
The mission strategically aligned with HRC61’s focus on emerging technologies and the safety of human rights defenders, ensuring that regional concerns regarding AI-enabled repression and the lack of data oversight are integrated into the Council’s thematic debates.
Across the MENA region, digital repression has become a primary tool in the endemic repression of dissent and pluralism, prompting the delegation to reframe these abuses as a core democratic governance issue on the global stage of the 61st session of the UN Human Rights Council. Grounding their advocacy in field-based evidence, including findings from the 2025 “AI for Digital Democracy Regional Survey,” the coalition highlighted severe structural challenges undermining civic participation. The delegation documented systematic patterns of abuse, including the weaponization of cybercrime and counterterrorism laws, the misuse of “false information” provisions contained in national security legislation, and widespread unlawful digital surveillance utilizing spyware and biometric technologies. Furthermore, the coalition drew international attention to digital repression tactics such as internet shutdowns, judicial harassment, prolonged detention linked to online speech, and the alarming rise of transnational repression targeting activists in exile.
The mission’s impact was driven by a series of high-level diplomatic engagements and bilateral meetings with Permanent Missions and Special Procedures, during which the delegation presented evidence-based findings and encouraged member states to raise concerns with MENA governments regarding the erosion of civic space.
A central component of the Geneva mission was the convening of a thematic side event titled “Digital democracy under attack: civic space, surveillance, and online repression in MENA,” which served as a public forum to present regional trends and lived experiences directly to diplomats, UN officials, and international media. The event was moderated by I4C MENA Regional Manager and brought together speakers from the coalition’s partner organizations to present evidence-based analysis of digital repression and democratic decline across the region, grounding global policy debates in the concrete realities faced by activists, journalists, and human rights defenders on the ground. Participants shared case studies and first-hand accounts that illustrated the growing convergence of surveillance technologies, platform-based censorship, and legal harassment as tools of civic suppression. The session concluded with a presentation of actionable policy recommendations aimed at strengthening protections for digital civic space and ensuring that international human rights frameworks keep pace with the evolving landscape of online repression in the region.
In advance of the session, the delegation formally submitted a comprehensive set of recommendations to the Permanent Missions, calling on states across the region to reform their digital rights frameworks, integrating human rights and digital democracy protections. The coalition urged these states to amend or repeal overly broad cybercrime and “false information” law provisions employed to criminalize peaceful online expression and eliminate custodial penalties for speech-related offenses. The recommendations also called for MENA states to establish independent judicial oversight of surveillance practices, guarantee due process protections, and adopt up-to-date, human rights-informed data protection frameworks. Additionally, the delegation raised urgent concerns regarding technology-enabled repression, calling for an immediate halt to the deployment of facial recognition systems and demanding independent investigations into spyware attacks targeting Palestinian human rights defenders.
At the cross-regional level, the coalition emphasized the critical need to address transnational repression, urging all MENA states to prohibit cross-border digital targeting of exiled activists, including coordinated smear campaigns and the intimidation of family members.
The delegation’s effort served as a high-level international launchpad to secure the global endorsements necessary for future efforts to advance digital rights and democracy in the MENA region. Building on the outcomes of HRC61, the coalition will continue its efforts to support follow-up engagement, technical dialogue, and policy reform processes at both regional and national levels.
مبادرات شبابية من أجل تعزيز الديمقراطية والمشاركة الرقمية
ما هي الديمقراطية الرقمية، ولماذا تهمّ منطقتنا؟ في هذا العصر الجديد الذي تعيد فيه التكنولوجيا تشكيل تفاصيل حياتنا اليومية، وكيف نعيش ونتواصل ونشارك في الشأن العام، يزداد الاهتمام بمفهوم "الديمقراطية الرقمية". وفي منطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا، حيث تتقلّص المساحات...
