10 October 2015. Inter-American Court of Human Rights, San Jose, Costa Rica - For the commemoration of the International Day against Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, UNESCO’s Regional Office organized the International Conference “Ending Impunity for Crimes against Journalist” at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights located in San Jose, Costa Rica; with the collaboration of the Inter-American Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, University for Peace, and other 19 partners.
The conference took place the 9-10 October and focused on the role of the judiciary in the fight against impunity. Judges from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the president of the African Court of Human and People’s Rights, and representatives from the judiciary of different countries had the opportunity to share best practices for the investigation and prosecution of crimes against journalists. NGOs representatives and journalists affected by the situation also had the possibility to share their experiences and needs; through their testimonies it was showed the negative impact of crimes against journalists in the exercise of the right to freedom of expression and for society. They also indicated that women journalists usually do not denounce crimes committed against them for fear of retaliation. For that reason, participants agreed in the necessity of developing professional actualization programs to help judges and lawyers in the creation of policies that take into account gender differences. UPEACE offers these programs, we invite you to visit our website www.upeace.org to know more about our Master Programs.
Additionally, the Inter-American Special Rapporteur noticed that attacks against bloggers and social media users have increased, creating new challenges to the protection and exercise of the right to freedom of expression. In this regard, NGOs indicated that nowadays anyone with access to the Internet and social media platforms can be considered as a social communicator, impacting the protection of journalists. Since 2013, UPEACE has contributed to the research in this field in Latin America; in fact, one of our doctoral students, Mariateresa Garrido, is researching on the exercise of the right to freedom of expression in the digital era and the legal mechanisms to protect journalists.
For more information, please contact Ana Lucía Guerrero at aguerrero@upeace.org, or call to +506 2205-9000.
