Columbia World Freedom of Expression seeks to contribute to the event of an built-in and progressive jurisprudence and understanding on freedom of expression and knowledge world wide. It maintains an in depth database of worldwide case legislation. That is its publication coping with current developments within the discipline.
In November 2025, our colleague Anderson J. Dirocie De León, CGFoE’s Senior Authorized & Coverage Guide, made historical past within the Dominican Republic. Along with constitutional legislation specialist Patricia M. Santana Nina, he led a authorized problem that culminated in a landmark ruling by the Constitutional Court docket, defending LGBTI rights and advancing equality.
“Backlash is usually an indication {that a} structural barrier is being challenged,” Santana Nina, the primary feminine lawyer selling strategic litigation for the protection of human rights within the Dominican Republic, advised CGFoE. With resistance from conservative and spiritual teams mounting, the Court docket’s choice laid naked the nation’s deep-seated social and institutional anti-LGBTI discrimination.
This week, in an interview opening our new Jurisprudence in Focus collection— conversations with authorized professionals on vital court docket rulings—we requested Anderson J. Dirocie De León and Patricia M. Santana Nina to replicate on their authorized problem, the backlash it confronted, and the renewed hope it provides within the ongoing battle for LGBTI rights. Under is an abridged excerpt. Learn the complete interview on our web site.
Anderson J. Dirocie De León is a human rights lawyer, authorized scholar, and Senior Authorized & Coverage Guide at CGFoE. Patricia M. Santana Nina is a constitutional legislation specialist, human rights defender, and member of the Advisory Council of the Ibero-American Community of Girls Mediators. Photograph: Dirocie De León and Santana Nina on the day of the listening to.
CGFoE: Following the ruling, what sorts of reactions did the 2 of you encounter?
Anderson & Patricia: We acquired sturdy assist from everybody throughout the authorized group who acknowledged the choice as a historic milestone and a long-overdue affirmation of constitutional equality and human dignity. For a lot of, the ruling represented a symbolic break with many years of institutionalized discrimination.
We additionally confronted a coordinated backlash from conservative and spiritual sectors, in addition to from some actors throughout the police and the navy. This included public narratives framing the choice as a menace to self-discipline, morality, or nationwide safety, and, extra concerningly, statements by senior officers suggesting they might proceed making use of inner disciplinary codes regardless of the ruling.
Lastly, we noticed makes an attempt to cut back the scope of the judgement to a “ethical debate” relatively than a constitutional matter and instill worry amongst judges and public servants in regards to the penalties of imposing the choice, confirming that criminalization was not merely a authorized rule, however a mechanism for sustaining exclusion by means of stigma and institutional energy.
Learn the complete interview right here. To study extra in regards to the judgment, see this backgrounder.
United Nations Human Rights CommitteePernalete López v. VenezuelaDecision Date: March 18, 2025The United Nations Human Rights Committee held that Venezuela violated the procedural dimension of the correct to lifetime of Juan Pablo Pernalete Llovera by failing to hold out an efficient investigation into his dying, which occurred throughout a protest in Caracas, Venezuela, in April 2017. Juan Pablo, a 20-year-old college pupil, died after being struck by a tear gasoline canister fired by an agent of the Bolivarian Nationwide Guard whereas he was collaborating in mass protests calling for the restoration of democratic order. His dad and mom alleged that the usage of power was disproportionate and that, thereafter, the authorities obstructed the prison investigation. Venezuela argued that the protests had not been peaceable and that the usage of power had been proportionate. Though the Committee declared the substantive allegations regarding freedom of expression and the correct to peaceable meeting inadmissible attributable to inconsistencies within the petitioners’ account, it concluded that, after virtually eight years of proceedings with out an efficient judicial response, Venezuela had did not adjust to its procedural obligations beneath Article 6 of the Worldwide Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Accordingly, the Committee ordered the State to proceed immediately with an exhaustive, unbiased, and neutral investigation and to sanction these accountable if their culpability had been established.
Inter-American Fee on Human RightsMaria Corina Machado v. Venezuela on precautionary measuresDecision Date: November 5, 2024The Inter-American Fee on Human Rights dominated that circumstances of seriousness, urgency, and danger of irreparable hurt continued to exist in Venezuela, justifying the upkeep and strengthening of precautionary measures in favor of María Corina Machado. Ms. Machado argued that her prominence as an opposition chief, alongside together with her public denunciations and political mobilization efforts, uncovered her to an more and more critical danger to her life and private integrity. She cited threats, harassment, surveillance, assaults, sabotage, and a broader context of potential criminalization—together with home rulings disqualifying her from political participation and bulletins of prison investigations—which, she contended, compelled her to undertake personal safety measures and ultimately go into hiding. Venezuela failed to reply to the Fee’s requests and didn’t adjust to beforehand ordered precautionary measures. The Fee emphasised the nation’s weakened rule of legislation and ongoing patterns of persecution and stigmatization towards dissenting voices. It additionally famous that the dangers confronted by Ms. Machado intensified following the 2024 electoral course of, with potential chilling results on the opposition and public debate. Consequently, the Fee required the State to undertake measures to guard Ms. Machado’s life and private integrity; guarantee she will proceed collaborating in political life free from threats, harassment, or violence; agree on the required measures together with her and her representatives; and examine the reported incidents with due diligence, together with analyzing doable involvement of State brokers.
Inter-American Court docket of Human RightsCapriles v. VenezuelaDecision Date: October 10, 2024The Inter-American Court docket of Human Rights (IACtHR) held that Venezuela violated Henrique Capriles’s proper to freedom of expression through the 2013 presidential elections, the place state dominated public media protection overwhelmingly favored Nicolás Maduro and Capriles acquired minimal, predominantly destructive publicity. After Capriles denounced the misuse of state sources and sought a broader audit of the vote, the Nationwide Electoral Council rejected his request, and the Supreme Court docket declared his problem inadmissible, fined him, and referred him for doable prison prosecution. Mr. Capriles filed a petition earlier than the Inter-American Fee on Human Rights (IACHR), which later submitted the case to the IACtHR. The Inter American Court docket held that democratic elections require an equitable informational setting and that the correct to freedom of expression reinforces States’ obligations to make sure truthful entry to public media and to guard the voters’s proper to obtain info. It additionally held that the State’s conduct impaired Capriles’s alternative to current his proposals and voters’ entry to numerous info and viewpoints. It additional maintained that the positive lacked authorized readability and a justification, and that resorting to prison legislation to guard the glory of public officers entailed a danger of intimidation and a chilling impact, in violation of Capriles’ proper to freedom of expression. The Court docket ordered the annulment and reimbursement of the positive, compensation, and structural ensures of non-repetition to stop the abuse of State sources and public media and to strengthen unbiased electoral and judicial oversight.
At CGFoE, we’re all the time looking for new judicial choices to incorporate in our database. If you’re conscious of a case that might be a robust match and have entry to the related authorized paperwork, we invite you to get in contact with us at globalfreespeech@columbia.edu. The CGFoE Staff will evaluate all submissions.
● IACHR: Concern over Armed Incursion in Venezuela, Name for Respect for Worldwide Regulation and Finish of Repression. Responding to america’ current “armed raid” into Venezuela, the Inter-American Fee on Human Rights (IACHR) urges full respect for worldwide legislation. Underscoring its 25-year-long documentation of Venezuela’s grave human rights file, the Fee factors to the nation’s additional shrinking civic area, worsened by, most lately, the detention of journalists, armed teams patrolling the cities, and the enactment of Decree No. 5,200, which establishes extreme restrictions on speech by means of “provisions authorizing the seek for and detention of individuals accused of selling or supporting the occasions.”
“The erosion of Venezuela’s democratic system can clearly be traced by means of the Venezuelan circumstances integrated into our database, from Ríos (2009) to López (2025). The three analyses featured this week deliver the development into sharper reduction, specializing in the state’s info manipulation, persecution of opposition leaders, and the suppression of protests,” Lautaro Furfaro, Senior Authorized Researcher at CGFoE
● Venezuela: UN Truth-Discovering Mission on Launch of Political Prisoners. The UN Venezuela Truth-Discovering Mission welcomes the current launch of political prisoners however notes that the state nonetheless fails to satisfy its worldwide human rights obligations. Solely 50 political prisoners—out of round 800—appear to have been launched, whereas reviews point out new detentions primarily based on political views. The Mission calls for that the Venezuelan authorities finish their systematic use of arbitrary detention as a instrument of oppression and prioritize transparency: “Public info should be offered on plans for additional releases, together with the standards utilized, timelines, and numbers.”
● Venezuela: After Maduro’s Ouster, Press Braces for Renewed Repression, by Silvia Higuera. LatAm Journalism Evaluate reviews on the fears of journalists in Venezuela that the state’s crackdown on the press will solely intensify. At the very least 16 media employees had been detained within the days following america’ navy operation; one in all them, Luis Carlos Vélez of Univision Noticias, publicly alleged that he and his crew had their telephones searched and journalistic footage erased by the Venezuelan authorities. “These detentions replicate an effort to intimidate the press and block unbiased reporting,” José Carlos Zamora of the Committee to Defend Journalists advised Silvia Higuera.
Uganda: November 2025—ongoing
This Thursday, January 15, Uganda holds a presidential election in a restrictive local weather as President Yoweri Museveni seeks to increase his 40-year rule. Election-related rallies have been focused with repression and intimidation.
Calls for: The rallies of the previous months have expressed assist for the opposition celebration, the Nationwide Unity Platform (NUP), and its presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, higher often known as Bobi Wine.
Background: On the time of the 2021 election in Uganda, greater than 50 individuals had been killed, and a whole bunch of Bobi Wine supporters had been arrested at spontaneous protests in Kampala. In early January 2026, Bobi Wine warned that he would name for mass protests if President Museveni had been to steal this 12 months’s election.
State response: Over 400 individuals have been arrested for collaborating within the NUP’s current rallies, throughout which safety officers used disproportionate power; some protesters have reported being tortured whereas in detention. Within the days earlier than the election, the authorities banned “dwell broadcasting of riots,” deployed the navy to the capital, suspended the work of a number of press freedom teams, and imposed an web shutdown.
Toll: At the very least one attendee of an opposition rally, Miseach Okello, died attributable to what appeared to have been the illegal use of power.
FoE Violations: Amnesty Worldwide has condemned Uganda’s brutal suppression of the correct to freedom of affiliation and peaceable meeting by means of extreme power, arbitrary arrests, torture, and different ill-treatment. Reporters With out Borders has referred to as on the authorities to revive web entry and assure journalists’ proper to report.
● Nothing Is Safe, by Maddy Crowell. Columbia Journalism Evaluate covers the case of Hannah Natanson, a Washington Submit journalist who reported on present and former federal employees (and has lately been in contact with almost 1,200 sources). On January 14, the FBI searched Natanson’s residence and seized her gadgets. Discussing this newest escalation within the concentrating on of the press by the Trump administration, Maddy Crowell speaks to digital safety knowledgeable Runa Sandvik.
● European Media Freedom Act: Can it Cease the Democratic Backsliding?, by Gemma Horton and Antonia Assersen-Skadberg. Printed within the Journal of Media Regulation, this article unpacks the European Media Freedom Act’s promise to safeguard media freedom throughout Europe, asking: Amid autocratic threats and speedy unfold of disinformation, is the Act strong sufficient to guard journalists and their sources?
● Requires Nominations:
– Entrance Line Defenders 2026 Award for Human Rights Defenders at Threat—ship your submissions by January 23.
– The 2026 ICFJ Knight Worldwide Journalism Award—the Worldwide Middle for Journalists welcomes nominations by February 8.
This text is reproduced with the permission of World Freedom of Expression. For an archive of earlier newsletters, see right here.
