The UN Human Rights Committee is drafting new guidance on the right to freedom of association (i.e., draft General Comment No. 38 on Article 22 of ICCPR (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights). In response to their call for input, Manushya Foundation has submitted formal comments arguing that the current draft, while containing real protections, describes a world without class, property or power, and that this omission lets States and corporations claim compliance while nothing changes on the ground.

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Drawing on more than a decade representing villagers in Phichit and Phetchabun against toxic runoff from the Chatree Gold Mine, and on documented cases involving Pegasus spyware, transnational repression agreements, party dissolution, SLAPP suits and the criminalisation of dissent across Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines, our submission calls on the Committee to:

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1. Name the labour movement as the historical author of rights like the eight-hour day, rather than presenting them as gifts from benevolent states.

2. Recognise that vulnerability among marginalised groups is produced by material and economic structures, not just attitudes.

3. Hold States accountable for the surveillance industry's role in suppressing association, not just its use.

4. Widen the definition of association to cover informal, leaderless and digitally-constituted networks, such as the Milk Tea Alliance and worker WhatsApp groups, alongside registered organisations.

5. Remove "licit goals" from the definition of protected association, a term historically used to criminalise every movement at its founding.

6. Address transnational repression as a distinct violation of the right, not merely something States passively suffer.

7. Replace voluntary corporate human rights due diligence with binding, enforceable legal duties.

8. Name strikes, labour protests and SLAPP suits explicitly in the Committee's discussion of impermissible restrictions.
    

Read the full submission for our complete analysis and proposed textual changes here.