5:30 PM

Zoom

This winter, the Atlantic Human Rights Centre, St. Thomas University's Department of Human Rights, St. Thomas University's Department of Journalism and Communications, the NB Media Co-op and RAVEN invite the public to the Human Rights & the Media Lecture Series. 

We will hear from scholars of the media and law, media makers and grassroots activists on how our media landscape is changing. We will hear about what they are doing to make this media landscape a more safe, just and equal space.

Laura O'Brien, UN Advocacy Officer for Access Now, will speak on "Defending Peaceful Assembly and Association in the Digital Age: Takedowns, Shutdowns, and Surveillance" on Tuesday, February 22 at 5:30 pm (Atlantic) by Zoom.

Social movements — from Hong Kong to Sudan — are increasingly using the internet to exercise their rights to organize, voice opinions, call others to action, express solidarity, and access life-saving information. They are developing creative approaches to fight for their rights in digital spaces, working within the constraints of physical distancing measures. However, governments are leveraging the internet and digital technologies to quell dissent and strip people of their capacity for collective action, online and off, even in contravention of their own domestic laws, and international human rights obligations. In fact, in 2019, protests were the most commonly observed cause of internet shutdowns —  a blatant action to quell assembly and silence dissenting voices.
 

This session examines three current issues on the rights of freedom of peaceful assembly and of association: Access, connectivity, and internet shutdowns; Unlawful surveillance and the right to privacy, and the influence of the private sector in the online civic space.

Laura O'Brien is the U.N. Advocacy Officer for Access Now. She joins Access Now after completing her LLM at Columbia Law School where she graduated with honors as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and with a Parker School Certificate of Achievement in International and Comparative Law. During her legal studies, Laura explored the pervasiveness of censorship – particularly of human rights defenders – in the digital realm, and assisted the Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic on issues related to business and human rights. Laura also holds a JD from the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, an MA in International Development from the University of Kent, Brussels School of International Studies, and a BA in Social Justice and Peace Studies from King’s University College at Western University. Laura has previously worked with human rights experts and international organizations based in Córdoba, New York, Geneva, Ottawa, and Toronto. She is a licensed barrister and solicitor in Ontario, Canada.

Register here.

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