Thread by @IAMCouncil

“Whenever someone speaks against this current ruling administration, they are likely to face social pressure to quiet them and attack their dignity" ~ @warishusain

#CongressionalBriefing #ReleasePrisonersOfConscience

Watch live here:

“When it comes to human rights defenders working for the Muslim in India community- they will be called terrorists, and when it comes to those working on gender issues- they will be called prostitutes or other terms meant to destroy the dignity of the target.” #FreeUmarKhalid

“Without a doubt, the revelations about the NSO hacking of human rights defenders around the world should be a wake-up call to anyone advocating for freedom or democracy in the world" ~ @warishusain

“The unauthorized and illegal monitoring of phones is used to collect sensitive private information that could be used to blackmail or publicly malign the character of human rights defenders.”

“As has been found in the Bhima Koregaon case, malicious actors are not only surveilling the defenders’ digital devices, they are implanting false information onto those devices.” #ReleasePrisonersOfConscience

“For prisoners of conscience, the process is the punishment. So by using British colonial-era laws concerning terrorism or sedition, the state can hold a prisoner of conscience for months and even years before proceeding in earnest with the trial" ~ @warishusain

"There is an entire infrastructure in place to silence human rights advocates in the country and turn them into prisoners of conscience. There are social, digital, and legal systems working together to punish those that do speak out, and intimidate those that could speak out."