Wikimedia Foundation/Legal/Community Resilience and Sustainability/Human Rights/Human Rights and Wikimedia

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Human Rights

Human Rights and Wikimedia

What are Human Rights?

“What’s a Human Right? It’s your daughter having the same opportunities as your son. It’s you loving whoever you want without fear. It’s you having access to a lawyer when you need to. It’s your right to be treated equally regardless of ability.” (EU Agency for Fundamental Rights)

Human rights (or fundamental rights) are the basic rights that protect the dignity of all humans. They belong to everyone, no matter their race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion or other status. Human rights include the right to life and freedom, protection from slavery and torture, freedom of expression, the right to work, the right to education, and many more.

Human rights are not just something we claim – they are also something we actively protect. They are reflected in the decisions our leaders and lawmakers make, the responsibilities we have to each other, and the actions we take to fight injustice. Human rights are protected by national laws and International Human Rights Law. They are supported and fought for by many human rights defenders and advocates across regions and disciplines.

Human Rights Online

Human rights do not only exist in the physical world, but online as well. Human rights often gain new meanings and dimensions in online spaces: If you write or read something on the internet, you are exercising your right to freedom of expression and access to information. If you come together with others online, you are exercising your right to peaceful assembly and participation in political, social and cultural life.

Online spaces also open up new threats to human rights: If a government or other powerful group blocks certain websites or cuts off internet access, the above rights might be in danger. When apps track your user behaviour and sell your data, your right to privacy is in danger.

Human Rights Education and Monitoring Resources

Find out more about human rights and how they work:

Find out how your country does at protecting human rights:

Rights Watch: monitors global human rights situations and publishes thematic reports and investigations
Amnesty International: documents the state of human rights in 154 countries
Human Rights Measurement: tracks countries’ human rights performances
Freedom House's ‘Freedom on the Net’ report: annual analysis of internet freedom around the world
[Reporters without Borders: inform on abuses of freedom of information; see for example their Freedom of Expression Index or Journalist Abuse Barometer

Why do human rights matter for the Wikimedia Movement?

The Wikimedia Movement aims to improve our world by promoting equal access to knowledge that truly represents human diversity. As a community that deeply cares about free, accessible, and equitable knowledge, we are closely connected with human rights!

The vision of the Wikimedia Movement is a world where everyone can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. This vision depends on and supports human rights. Wikimedia projects help protect freedom of expression by providing a platform to share and access a wide range of knowledge. In turn, better freedom of speech and access to information help promote other rights, like the rights to education, artistic expression, economic opportunity, and participation in civic and political life. In this way, Wikimedia projects can play a big role in advancing many human rights.

At the same time, the projects can only thrive in an environment where everybody can voice their opinion, engage in discussion and use the platforms freely. For this to happen, contributors’ fundamental rights, such as freedom of expression and the right to peaceful online assembly need to be respected.

Keep in mind that human rights rights are connected to and dependent on each other: when someone’s basic freedoms are denied in other places, it likely also affects whether they are allowed to speak and assemble freely and safely. For example, if women are denied access to education, they might be stripped from the means to express themselves meaningfully; if your justice system is corrupt and you could be arrested arbitrarily, you will think twice about openly criticizing a judge’s decision; if your right to privacy is breached by surveillance, your channels of expression will likely be limited. Therefore, our projects rely on an environment where our contributors and readers can exercise the full range of their human rights. For this reason, the Wikimedia Foundation’s Human Rights Policy establishes our commitment to protect and respect the full range of human rights across all of our projects and to advocate for policies and technologies that enable our global Movement to thrive.

As part of the 2030 Movement Strategy recommendation on safety and inclusion, the Movement also strives to establish standards for an inclusive, welcoming, safe, and harassment-free environment. This includes supporting those threatened because of their involvement with Wikimedia projects and improving community safety from a human rights perspective.

Wikimedians under threat

Freedom of expression online is under constant attack. Wikimedians are often a thorn in the side of those who want to control information for their advantage. This is why Wikimedians can face a variety of threats because of their participation in our Movement.

Who threatens Wikimedians?

Wikimedians can be harmed or threatened by different people or groups. These people or groups are called 'threat actors' or 'malicious actors'. They may act alone or work with governments, extremist groups, or organized crime. Threat actors can come from outside the Wikimedia Movement, join the group to cause harm, or be internal (fellow Wikimedians).

Why are Wikimedians targeted?

Reasons why Wikimedians might be targeted include:

editing a controversial topic area
personal traits revealed (being part of an ethnic minority, LGBTQ+ group,...)
criticizing influential people or groups
deleting a promotional article or reverting vandalism
simply participating in the open knowledge Movement
detrring others or as part of a broader political situation
BLPs and harmful content: non-Wikimedians might also be targeted, for example if information that could put them in danger is shared over Wikimedia platforms

What are common threats and which human rights are affected?

Since our community is global and diverse, the threats Wikimedians face depend on their personal situation and where they live. For example, contributing to or using Wikimedia projects can be riskier for people in authoritarian countries than for those in countries where freedom of expression is better protected. Some serious threats to Wikimedians include sharing personal information online (’doxxing’), surveillance, and both online and offline harassment and persecution.

The table below uses the WMF’s Human Rights Impact Assessment to explain these threats in the language of International Human Rights Law. Different harms affect different rights and freedoms, and violate different Human Rights Treaties.

Human Right	How is it affected?
Dignity (Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 1)	Harassment and persecution, whether online or offline, violate the right to be treated with dignity. The harm caused depends on the type and severity of harassment.
Right to life, liberty and security of person (UDHR 3)	Harassment and persecution can impact the right to security of person and affect physical and psychological well-being.
Right to non-discrimination (UDHR 2)	Harassment and persecution are often targeting vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, including women, racial and ethnic minorities, political dissidents, and Human Rights Defenders.
Right to privacy (UDHR 12)	Some forms of harassment, like doxing, aim to share private information without their consent. Unlawful surveillance violates the right to privacy, whether online or offline.
Freedom of Expression & Access to Information (UDHR 19) Freedom of Assembly (UDHR 20) Right to Participation in Cultural Life (UDHR 27) Right to take part in government (UDHR 21)	If Wikimedians feel unsafe participating, the right to free expression and access to information, assembly and to participate in cultural life may be violated. Contributors may avoid sharing truthful information or certain topics out of fear of retaliation (self-censorship).
Freedom from unlawful attacks on one’s honor and reputation (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Article 17)	Threats can be designed to harm someone’s reputation.

To see how Wikimedians have been targeted in the past, take a look at the following news stories:

For a more detailed explanation on how Wikimedia projects, platforms, and activities can harm human rights of Wikimedia volunteers, Foundation employees, users, and others, read the WMF’s Human Rights Impact Assessment.

Why a Human Rights Team?

As our Movement has grown, information from Wikimedia projects has been shared and amplified by other internet platforms. Unfortunately, this growth has also led to an increase in emergencies and threats against our volunteers. In response, and to carry out the recommendations from the Human Rights Impact Assessment, the Wikimedia Foundation hired staff with human rights expertise. In 2021, a Human Rights Lead was hired to build a team and program focused on protecting the safety of our Movement’s volunteers – the Human Rights Team. We are a dedicated and experienced team working to reduce and address the risks community members face and protect them from threats as best as we can.