[This statement is also available on the UN's OHCHR website.]

Joint Statement by United Nations Human Rights Experts on Transnational Repression

23 September 2026

Preamble

1. We, members of United Nations human rights Treaty Bodies and United Nations Special Procedures mandate holders, express our deep concern regarding transnational repression and its serious implications for human rights, democracy, State sovereignty, security, safety, civic space and the rule of law.

2. All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated. They apply to every person, everywhere, and do not end at States’ borders.

3. Transnational repression has severe impacts on the right of individuals, groups and communities to exercise and advocate for human rights and fundamental freedoms, participate in public affairs, communicate across borders, and engage with national, regional and international institutions, which is essential to the promotion and protection of human rights and to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

4. United Nations human rights mechanisms have increasingly drawn attention to patterns of transnational repression and related practices. We note in particular statements, reports, recommendations and jurisprudence developed by Treaty Bodies, Special Procedures, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, including mechanisms to address reprisals, the Human Rights Council and its investigative mechanisms, and other United Nations entities. We also recognize the ongoing development of a joint statement by the Committee on Enforced Disappearances and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances concerning transnational repression and enforced disappearance.

Definition

5. Transnational repression refers to measures taken by States, both within and outside their territories, to silence, deter, punish, coerce, control or harm in any other way, individuals, groups and communities abroad on the basis of their real or perceived opinions or beliefs, identity or action, including dissent, or exercise, defence, or advocacy for human rights and fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law.

Responsible Actors

6. Transnational repression may be carried out directly by State authorities and public officials, or by non-State actors acting on their instructions or under their direction or control. A State may also aid or assist another State in committing transnational repression. Transnational repression may also be enabled by a State’s failure to diligently prevent and protect against known or reasonably foreseeable human rights violations within its jurisdiction, including by another State, and to provide effective remedies for them. Transnational repression may also be facilitated through the direct cooperation or action by international and regional organizations.

Affected individuals, groups and communities

7. Such repression may target individuals, groups and communities directly or indirectly, and disproportionately affects, inter alia, members of diaspora communities, migrants, asylum seekers, refugees and stateless persons, as well as human rights defenders, civil society organizations, social movements, journalists, media workers, lawyers, dissidents, students, academics, artists, trade unionists, judicial operators, peoples exercising their right to self-determination, and individuals and groups cooperating or seeking to cooperate with the United Nations and other international and regional human rights bodies.

8. We further recognize that transnational repression frequently takes the form of proxy coercion or punishment, and often extends beyond direct targets to family members and affects other personal relationships, colleagues and employers, associations, assemblies, and communities, who therefore also become victims of transnational repression.

9. Transnational repression often aims to instill broader chilling effects across borders on activities such as advocacy, the promotion and protection of human rights, expression of dissent, civic and political participation, peaceful assembly and association, international solidarity movements, accountability efforts and cooperation with international judicial bodies, the fight against corruption, environmental and land protection, among others.

Methods and tactics

10. We observe with concern the broad range of forms, tactics and tools of transnational repression, which are often cumulative, carried out by multiple actors, and forming part of a broader coercive campaign. These include, among others, extrajudicial killings, all forms of torture or ill-treatment, physical attacks, enforced disappearances, threats and harassment (including sexual and gender-based violence and harassment), criminalization, abductions, arbitrary detention, and arbitrary expulsions (including renditions, unlawful or summary deportations and refoulement). They also include arbitrary deprivation of nationality de jure or de facto, misuse of international and regional law enforcement and legal cooperation mechanisms (including Interpol Red Notices and Diffusions, extradition and mutual assistance, counter-terrorism and national security frameworks and regional arrest warrant procedures), harassment and intimidation of family members and associates, abusive legal proceedings (including Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs)), arbitrary administrative measures (such as sanctions, restrictive orders, restrictions on movement including prohibitions on leaving or entering one’s country (travel bans), cancellation of passports, visas or other identity and travel documents and denial of consular services), and the abuse of measures to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism, and other financial measures (such as the seizing and freezing of assets and restrictions of access to financial services).

11. We are particularly concerned by the increasingly digital nature of transnational repression, including through the use of social media and messaging platforms to engage in targeted stigmatization and smear campaigns, online harassment, threats, disinformation, and defamation; the use of spyware, malware, phishing or other methods to gain unauthorized access to digital accounts, information and communications, and conduct unlawful monitoring and surveillance; the non-consensual disclosure of private, personally identifiable information online (doxxing); Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) or other network-based attacks; and internet-access disruption, among other methods. We are concerned by the fact that these methods are being amplified and expanded through the availability of AI, including the use of AI tools to generate fake videos and photos (‘deepfakes’), and by the fact that women and girls are disproportionately affected by threats of sexual and gender-based violence and gender-specific forms of digital transnational repression. We are further concerned that facial recognition technologies and other forms of biometrics exacerbate risks of transnational repression. We are also concerned by the lack of regulation around the sale of spyware and other technologies where there is a foreseeable risk that they will be used to commit acts of digital transnational repression.

12. We emphasize that acts of transnational repression targeting individuals and groups cooperating, seeking to cooperate, or perceived as cooperating with the United Nations, its bodies or representatives constitute intimidation or reprisals. We are concerned at the growing number of acts of intimidation and reprisals, as documented by the UN Secretary-General, including those targeting Special Procedures mandate holders, as well as the chilling effects thereof.

13. We further recognize that these forms, tactics and tools continue to evolve, including through the use of new and emerging technologies.

Impacts on human rights and civic space

14. By creating fear across borders, transnational repression has profound consequences not only for those directly targeted, their families and communities, but also for civil society action, democratic principles, civic space, refugee protection, independent journalism and media freedom, academic freedom, judicial independence, the ability of individuals and groups to promote, protect and defend human rights, and to engage safely with national, international and regional human rights mechanisms.

15. We recognize that transnational repression is often compounded by multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and disproportionately affects individuals, groups and communities in vulnerable, disadvantaged or marginalized situations. This includes women human rights defenders, environmental human rights defenders, exiled activists, children, migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, and stateless persons, racialized communities, minorities, persons with disabilities, Indigenous Peoples, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and other gender-diverse (LGBT) persons, older persons, persons deprived of liberty, and persons belonging to politically targeted communities.

16. We also recognize that transnational repression has adverse impacts on the physical, mental, and social and economic well-being of individuals affected, including family members, relatives, and others with a close relationship, resulting in some cases in the loss of livelihood and property, and generating self-isolation and in some cases ‘civil death’ through the deprivation of legal identity.

17. The impacts on diaspora and exiled communities are particularly acute and often cumulative, including family-based pressure, legal precarity, and ongoing insecurity, and often lead to the erosion of trust within and across communities.

18. We emphasize the importance of victim-centered, trauma-informed, intersectional, inclusive, culturally sensitive, non-discriminatory and gender-responsive approaches to prevent and respond to transnational repression.

Applicable Human Rights Obligations

19. We emphasize that practices of transnational repression may violate rights exercised individually or collectively. This includes the rights to life, liberty and security of person, to freedom from torture and ill-treatment and enforced disappearance, to non-discrimination, to freedom of expression, of association, peaceful assembly and movement, the right to take part in public affairs, the right to promote, protect and defend human rights, to privacy, to reputation, to nationality, the right to an effective remedy and access to justice, the right to recognition as a person before the law, fair trial and due process, and other fundamental freedoms, as well as the principle of non-refoulement.

20. We further highlight that international law, in particular international human rights law, as well as international refugee law in relation to asylum seekers and refugees, applies fully to conduct connected to transnational repression. States have a duty to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights, both online and offline, without discrimination.

21. States have a duty to refrain from committing or enabling acts of transnational repression, and from providing aid or assistance to another State or actor in the commission of acts of transnational repression, including through cooperation with other States or international and regional bodies and agencies, where there is a real or foreseeable risk of transnational repression.

22. The extraterritorial application of human rights obligations is well established in international law. States have a duty to ensure that any conduct attributable to them, including conduct with reasonably foreseeable effects on rights beyond their borders, is consistent with their obligations under international law.

23. States’ non-refoulement obligations extend beyond the risk of persecution under refugee law and are absolute in relation to arbitrary deprivation of life and liberty, torture and ill-treatment, and enforced disappearance, flagrant denial of justice and other serious human rights violations. They prohibit return, expulsion, extradition, or transfer wherever there are substantial grounds for believing an individual, group, or community would face such violations. These obligations apply without discrimination, and in particular, regardless of the immigration or national security status of the individual, group, or community concerned, and cannot be derogated from under any circumstances.

24. States have a duty to protect individuals within their jurisdiction from acts of transnational repression carried out by foreign actors, including by taking reasonable preventive and protective measures, and heightened measures where there is a real or foreseeable risk of transnational repression.

25. States are further obliged to ensure that any individual whose rights have been violated has access to an effective remedy. This includes the obligation to conduct prompt, thorough, independent, impartial, and effective investigations into alleged violations; to prosecute and punish those responsible; and to provide full reparation to individuals affected, including restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, and guarantees of non-repetition. These obligations extend to holding accountable persons and groups of persons whose conduct is attributable to the State, as well as the State organs who instructed them or whose direction or control they were under. The obligations also extend to State organs who failed to diligently fulfil the obligations to prevent, protect and remedy the human rights violations involved.

26. We recall that States' duty to protect human rights requires them to take appropriate steps to prevent, investigate, punish and redress human rights abuses by third parties, including business enterprises and private military and security actors, armed groups and organized criminal groups occurring within their territory or jurisdiction. This includes regulating technology companies to prevent the export, sale or transfer of surveillance technologies and other tools that foreseeably contribute to transnational repression and establishing clear legal frameworks for corporate respect and accountability consistent with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

27. States also have a duty to respect, protect and fulfill the right, individually and in association with others, to unhindered access to and communication with international bodies, including the United Nations human rights system, free from intimidation or reprisals, both online and offline. This includes the obligation to take steps to prevent, investigate and ensure accountability for acts of intimidation or reprisal.

Recommendations to States

28. We call upon all States to refrain from engaging in acts of transnational repression, including through the following measures:

29. We further call upon all States to respond to acts of transnational repression within their jurisdiction or territory, such as through the following measures:

30. We call upon all States to take all feasible measures and adopt legislation to diligently prevent and protect individuals and groups against known or reasonably foreseeable risks of transnational repression, including where those acts do not constitute a crime under domestic law, such as through the following measures:

31. We call upon all States to provide enhanced protection and redress to individuals, groups and communities targeted with transnational repression within their jurisdiction, including through the following measures:

32. We further call on States hosting UN and other international and regional bodies, as well as related conferences and high-level meetings, to take all measures to prevent and respond to acts of intimidation and reprisals for cooperation with such bodies, and to guarantee access to such bodies without undue restrictions, including through the timely issuance of visas.

Recommendations to Other Stakeholders

33. We further encourage international, regional and sub-regional organizations, national human rights institutions and other oversight and accountability bodies, media and technology companies and other business actors, civil society organizations, academic institutions and other relevant stakeholders, to strengthen efforts aimed at preventing and addressing transnational repression. This includes improving protection and support for affected individuals, groups and communities, enhancing accountability and due diligence frameworks, safeguarding digital rights and privacy, supporting independent documentation and research, and facilitating safe and prompt access to international protection and human rights mechanisms. Private security and military companies and actors must respect human rights, and refrain from engaging in acts of transnational repression, including through SLAPPs, surveillance or abductions.

34. Interpol should strengthen internal and external mechanisms to ensure the timely review of requests regarding Notices, Diffusions, the Stolen and Lost Documents Database, and other mechanisms misused by States to commit acts of transnational repression, and enhance communication channels with States, UN regional and sub-regional bodies, civil society, and affected individuals, groups and communities to that effect. Interpol should further strengthen disciplinary measures against States for repeated non-compliance and abuse of Notices, Diffusions and other mechanisms in violation of article 3 to commit acts of transnational repression.Regional policing organizations and networks, such as the Arab Interior Ministers' Council (AIMC), Ameripol, Europol, Afripol, and ASEANAPOL, should also establish or strengthen mechanisms to prevent and respond to the misuse by States of police cooperation tools to commit acts of transnational repression.

35. We encourage individuals to exercise their right to access data concerning them at Interpol’s databases and seek their modification or deletion, including by submitting applications to the Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files (CCF).

36. UN and other international, regional and sub-regional bodies should ensure that affected individuals, including their relatives, associations, groups and communities have access to safe avenues for reporting, participation and engagement, and establish mechanisms to prevent and respond to acts of intimidation and reprisals for cooperating, or seeking to cooperate with such bodies.

37. We encourage national human rights institutions to further address transnational repression, including by documenting patterns of transnational repression both in their country or committed abroad by their relevant State, raising awareness, facilitating access to protection, support and remedies for affected individuals, groups and communities.

38. Technology companies have a particular responsibility to refrain from engaging or enabling acts of transnational repression, including by conducting thorough human rights due diligence in relation to their operations, platforms, products and services in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. They should also strengthen privacy and data protection, and transparency in relation to surveillance cooperation with States and compliance with governmental requests to remove content or access user information.

Future Action by the United Nations

39. We acknowledge the important work already undertaken by United Nations human rights mechanisms to address aspects of transnational repression. We recognize the need to further clarify the obligations of States in terms of prevention, protection, accountability and redress for acts of transnational repression. We further recognize the need for strengthened dialogue and awareness-raising, coordination, technical assistance, data collection, enhanced information-sharing, and greater consistency in documenting and responding to these practices, including the sharing of experiences and good practices among United Nations, regional and sub-regional mechanisms and States.

Conclusion

40. Transnational repression represents a growing challenge to the international human rights system and to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations itself. Addressing it requires coordinated, rights-based and victim-centered responses grounded in international law, the principle of accountability, international cooperation and meaningful participation by affected individuals, groups and communities.

41. We reaffirm our commitment to continuing to work collectively to address these practices and to protect the rights and freedoms of all those affected.

Special Procedures mandate holders

Treaty Body committees

Treaty Body members in their individual capacity: