March 15, 2022
- Amnesty International, Access Now and Citizen Lab to provide expert opinion at a hearing convened by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on Wednesday 16 March at 2pm EST.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) will examine the widespread unlawful surveillance using Pegasus spyware against journalists and civil society in El Salvador at a hearing on Wednesday.
The moves follows a joint investigation by Access Now, and the Citizen Lab, published in January, which identified the use of NSO Group’s notorious Pegasus spyware against journalists and members of civil society organizations in El Salvador.
The unlawful use of Pegasus in El Salvador is part of a wider pattern of harassment and threats against journalists and human rights defenders, who work in an increasingly hostile environment.
Belissa Guerrero Rivas, Regional Advocacy Coordinator at Amnesty International
Technical experts from Amnesty International’s Security Lab peer-reviewed the findings and independently verified forensic evidence showing that Pegasus has been abused in the country.
“NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware is being used as a weapon to silence journalists in El Salvador and across the world. The IACHR hearing is a key step towards accountability for people who have been unlawfully targeted by spyware,” said Belissa Guerrero Rivas, Regional Advocacy Coordinator for the Americas at Amnesty International.
“The unlawful use of Pegasus in El Salvador is part of a wider pattern of harassment and threats against journalists and human rights defenders, who work in an increasingly hostile environment. This underscores the need for a prompt, thorough and impartial investigation into the unlawful use of this technology in the country. There also needs to be an immediate moratorium on the use of spyware technology until a regulatory framework that protects human rights is implemented.”
Wednesday’s hearing is the first by the IACHR on cyber-surveillance in the country. The hearing was requested by the Asociación de Periodistas de El Salvador Periódico Digital El Faro, Revista Gato Encerrado, Fundación para el Debido Proceso and the Centro por la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional), following January’s revelations.
The IACHR hearing will be available to watch here
For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:
Duncan Tucker: +52 55 4848 8266, duncan.tucker@amnesty.org
Tom Mackey: +44 20 7413 5566 tom.mackey@amnesty.org
