Background

On 6 October 2022, the Human Rights Council adopted resolution 51/10 on cyberbullying. The resolution mandated a panel discussion on cyberbullying against children, and a report on cyberbullying against persons with disabilities. Pursuant to this resolution, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) organized in September 2023 a panel discussion on cyberbullying against children. OHCHR is now preparing a report on countering cyberbullying against persons with disabilities, identifying recent trends and challenges, as well as applicable human rights principles, safeguards and best practices. 

It also requests that the report be prepared in close cooperation with all relevant stakeholders, including States, international and regional organizations, relevant special procedures of the Human Rights Council, the treaty bodies, other relevant United Nations offices, agencies, funds and programmes, within their respective mandates, national human rights institutions, civil society, in particular persons with disabilities and their representative organizations, the private sector and academia. 

The report will be submitted to the Human Rights Council at its fifty-sixth session in 2024.

OHCHR invites all relevant stakeholders to provide inputs for the preparation of the thematic report. 

Key questions and types of input/comments sought

The following questions, albeit not meant to be exhaustive, indicate areas of particular interest for the drafting of the report:

• Please provide information, in particular any study or detailed assessment you have undertaken, about how cyberbullying affects the human rights of persons with disabilities. If available, please provide disaggregated data. 
• Please provide information about good practices (developed and/or implemented by States, national human rights institutions, civil society organizations, business enterprises, international organizations) at local, national, regional or international levels, to address cyberbullying against persons with disabilities, including its root causes.
• Please provide information about any assessments made of how existing initiatives and responses to cyberbullying impact the rights of persons with disabilities. What improvements were achieved? Were and are there observed and potential negative impacts on the enjoyment of human rights related to those initiatives?
• What other related threats and obstacles to effectively ensure the human rights of persons with disabilities online, including the right to privacy, the right to freedom of expression and the prohibition against discrimination, should be addressed in the report?
• Please provide information about measures taken to address those issues, including to ensure access to online platforms by persons with disabilities; to ensure inclusiveness and remove obstacles for persons with disabilities to the digital environment.
• What are good practices, mechanisms or models for ensuring the that persons with disabilities can exercise their rights in the online space, particularly on online platforms? Are there particular challenges in their implementation or adoption? What additional measures should be developed and implemented?
• Please provide information about whether specific measures have been taken to ensure accountability and access to remedies for persons with disabilities for violations or abuses of their rights in the digital space

Download the questionnaire (Word)

OHCHR requests to kindly submit all inputs in accessible format (Word).

How inputs will be used

Unless otherwise specified, all contributions will be made available in full and as received on the public OHCHR website. Kindly indicate if the submission contains names, images or other information that should not be posted on the public OHCHR website. Please note that not all information shared will necessarily be reflected in the final report and that information falling outside the mandate will not be considered.