It is an honour to address you today on behalf of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, on an issue of growing urgency for our Office, for States, and for human rights defenders around the world: transnational repression.

Our Office, alongside United Nations human rights mechanisms, has been paying attention to the issue of transnational repression for many years now as part of its continued efforts to monitor, promote and protect civic space and civil society actors at global and field level.

Our High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has on several occasions expressed his concerns on the global trend of transnational repression, urging all States to have zero tolerance for such actions. In June 2025, OHCHR released its first dedicated brief on transnational repression. This brief reflects the concerns expressed to us by targets, by their families, by States, and by UN partners, on how the phenomenon has increased and has been exacerbated by new means, including digital technologies, over the past years.

So, what is transnational repression?

Transnational repression occurs when States, including through proxies, reach beyond their borders to silence, intimidate, or harm individuals living abroad. These individuals are often journalists, human rights defenders, political opponents, members of minority communities, or ordinary people who have exercised their right to speak freely or are simply suspected of or perceived as against a certain regime.

Experts from our own Office, UN human rights mechanisms, other international and regional entities, and civil society are documenting a wide range of such practices — including:

• digital surveillance, cybercrime and online harassment;
• harassment and threats directed at family members remaining in the country of origin;
• abuse of legal and administrative systems, including renditions and extraditions, immigration procedures, SLAPPs, financial measures;
• and in the most serious cases, abductions, arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearances, and targeted killings.

Over the past decade, transnational repression has expanded in scope, geography, and sophistication. The tactics used have become increasingly digital, increasingly transnational, and increasingly coordinated. More worryingly, we are observing a trend of subtler and less visible forms of repression, where it is hard to prove the acts of repression and to hold anyone accountable.

We can observe incidents in every region of the world — with Europe being no exception. And this phenomenon affects more than the human rights of individual targets.

It reduces viable options for defenders and civil society actors to stay safe. It obstructs democratic participation, restricts civic space globally, and deters diaspora communities from exercising their rights.

Transnational repression also strikes at the heart of the international legal order. It violates the principle that individuals should be able to engage with the United Nations safely and without fear of reprisals — an issue our Office continues to treat with the utmost seriousness.

Presenting to the Human Rights Council her latest report on reprisals this year, the Assistant Secretary-General for human rights highlighted transnational repression as a deeply concerning development. We documented intimidation and reprisals in 11 cases concerning 6 Member States targeting individuals engaging with the UN, as well as their relatives and colleagues — ranging from criminal charges, surveillance, harassment, confiscation of property and passports, and extradition attempts against a recognized refugee.

Moreover, transnational repression erodes trust between States. It undermines international cooperation, the functioning of asylum systems, and the integrity of legal and technological infrastructure.

Our briefer outlines a number of recommendations for States to address this growing challenge. These include:

• Acknowledge and define the phenomenon within national frameworks, ensuring that transnational repression is addressed as a human rights issue.
• Refrain from committing, enabling, or condoning acts of repression beyond borders, including by limiting the export or misuse of surveillance technologies and refraining from abusive extradition requests.
• Provide protection to those at risk, including safe asylum procedures, secure residency pathways, access to justice, and measures that ensure protection from attacks, both online and offline.
• Strengthen accountability, through independent investigations, sanctions where appropriate, and cooperation with international mechanisms.
• Support robust international monitoring and collaboration, including with UN mandates, regional bodies, and civil society, to document patterns, share information, and prevent impunity.

These steps are not optional. They reflect existing obligations States have under international human rights law.

But concerned States are not the only ones which need to take action. The whole international community, alongside non-State actors such as businesses and civil society have an important role to play to support and complement responses by individual States.

At the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly, States have increasingly raised the need for coordinated responses to ensure stronger accountability, and better protection for those targeted.

G7 States have championed important commitments to this effect — following a joint statement adopted in July, a high-level inter-sessional event is taking place in Geneva this afternoon under the lead of Canada, supported by our Office and civil society partners.

UN human rights mechanisms are also paying increasing attention to the issue: most recently, the Committee on Enforced Disappearances and the Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances launched a call for inputs to inform a forthcoming joint statement on Enforced Disappearances in the context of transnational repression — which I encourage all of you to contribute to.

Excellencies, colleagues — transnational repression is not a marginal issue affecting only a few States or a handful of individuals. It is a global and urgent challenge that demands a global and urgent response.

We need to ensure that existing laws and policy frameworks do not exacerbate risks but enable responses. We need to build awareness, boost resilience and enhance capacity to respond among both duty bearers and rights holders. We need leadership, collaboration and partnerships to turn commitments into action.

The EU is a key ally which can leverage its role as both regional and global actor on all these levels. The increasing engagement of different EU institutions on this issue and their readiness to get together to improve responses, as reflected in the collaboration between our Office, the Parliament, the External Action Service and civil society partners, which led to this impressive gathering of today and tomorrow, reflects its resolve to take up the challenge.

From our side, we remain fully committed to continue support resilience and protection efforts, document violations, provide guidance, work with UN mechanisms, and facilitate exchanges and strengthening partnerships among international and regional organizations, States, civil society and other non-state actors.

Let us act together to boost our collective ability to uphold the principle that human rights do not stop at borders, and ensure that individuals — particularly those who courageously defend human rights — can live, speak, work, and engage safely and without fear, wherever they are.

Thank you.