The Right to Dissent: International Law Obligations to Respect, Protect and Fulfill the Right to Participate in Public Affairs by Engaging in Criticism, Opposition and Dissent

Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada (LRWC) produced this manual to promote human rights and the rule of law through enhancing knowledge of international human rights law guarantees of the rights to participate in public affairs by engaging in public debate, criticism, opposition, and dissent. The idea is that access to this information by a broad range of users - activists, human rights defenders, journalists and bloggers, police, lawyers and judges, government officials, corporate actors, and interested members of the public - will enable people to rely on, jurists to enforce, and state and corporate actors to comply with international standards. This guide provides readers with tools and knowledge to ensure rights, protect the lives and liberty of dissenters, enable meaningful participation in public life, and promote the rule of law.

The crux of the guide is located in the following passage: "The guarantee of the right to dissent and to participate in peaceful protest is not found in any single formulated right in international law, but rather is firmly anchored in a number of distinct but interconnected and mutually enforcing fundamental rights, which include the right to freedom of expression, the rights to freedom of association and peaceful assembly and the right to participate in public affairs." These freedoms encompass rights to receive and impart information, inspire debate, and influence decision-making about issues of public concern. Specifically: "The exercise of the rights to dissent and protest furthers the promotion and protection of other rights by generating visibility and momentum of issues and concerns; informing and changing public opinion; engaging the media in amplifying the voice of dissent; accelerating change and reform processes; and achieving social objectives in changing legislation, policies, decisions, actions and attitudes." Article 7 of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders explicitly recognises that "Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to develop and discuss new human rights ideas and principles and to advocate their acceptance". According to LRWC, despite legal duties imposed on States to respect, protect and fulfil the rights to dissent and protest, these rights are routinely misunderstood and increasingly violated, with dissenters facing consequences including arrest, imprisonment, displacement, disappearance, and death.

The guide explains the international legal standards and underlying principles and interpretations of the standards that comprise the international legal framework for the right to dissent and protest. It includes: observations, jurisprudence, comments, and recommendations from United Nations (UN) treaty monitoring bodies; opinions and recommendations of Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council; and jurisprudence from regional courts and bodies, including the European Court on Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the African Commission of Human and Peoples' Rights. The handbook demonstrates the need to consider emerging concepts that deal with new technologies and the realities that are faced by many of the most disenfranchised people around the world, as well as the civil society organisations and human rights defenders who work to protect them.