4 Aug 2025 | News and features, Statements
Transnational repression (TNR) is on the rise globally, fuelled by rapidly evolving technology, global democratic-backsliding and the rise of authoritarianism and years of neglect by previous governments. It is a major policy blind spot, resulting in significant constraints on the exercise of fundamental rights in the UK.
Repressive actors, including powerful and hostile states, have a growing set of tools to surveil, threaten, harass and attack individuals in the UK, violating their fundamental rights guaranteed under international and domestic laws such as the Human Rights Act 1998. Political dissidents, exiled journalists and human rights defenders have traditionally been the main targets of TNR, but today a broader array of groups and individuals also find themselves subject to transnational human rights violations here in the UK.
The UK’s responses to TNR to date have been sparse, incoherent and largely inaccessible to targeted communities and individuals. Law enforcement is an important part of the solution, but the cross-border nature of TNR demands a broader approach to protect the rights of those targeted.
Index on Censorship is a founding member of the Tackling Transnational Repression (TNR) in the UK Working Group. Formed in September 2024, the Tackling TNR Working Group is an informal coalition of individuals and organisations working to address TNR in the UK context.
The working group’s steering committee includes: The Foreign Policy Centre, Richardson Institute at Lancaster University, Index on Censorship, Reporters Without Borders, Azadi Network and The Rights Practice. The wider membership also comprises organisations such as the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), China Dissent Network, Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, FairSquare, Hong Kong Democracy Council, Hong Kong Watch, and Iran International, as well as other individual experts and researchers.
The aims of the group are to:
- To advance research and monitor incidents and effects of TNR in the UK;
- Support individuals and groups affected by TNR; and
- Identify and shape the development of a comprehensive policy response to TNR in the UK.
Together, the Tackling TNR WG has developed a ‘Four Part Approach’ for addressing TNR in the UK, which is outlined in detail below. This approach was included in the Tackling TNR in the UK Working Group’s submission to the Human Rights (Joint Committee) inquiry into ‘Transnational repression in the UK,’ in February 2025. Our evidence was published by the Committee in June 2025, and is available here.
Following the publication of the Joint Committee on Human Rights’ report on transnational repression in the UK on 30th July 2025, the Tackling Transnational Repression in the UK Working Group prepared a statement in response. To read the statement, click here.
The Tackling TNR Working Group’s ‘Four Part Approach’ for addressing TNR in the UK
Monitor
- Provide a clear, accessible and trusted contact point for lodging TNR complaints.
- Collect data, research and reports on the prevalence and forms of transnational infringements of UK residents’ human rights, in a consistent manner that is regularly made public (e.g. through annual reports).
- Play an active role within the international community (including through the Council of Europe, Interpol, the G7 Rapid Response Mechanism, OSCE and UN) to ensure information and data is shared to help combat TNR at a global level, while also protecting against international mechanisms being abused to further TNR.
Respond
- Inform relevant UK government agencies (across all four nations) to ensure legal threats and actions, extradition, deportation and freezing of assets are not used to violate human rights.
- Raise TNR cases, both individually and in aggregate, through diplomatic channels and in public statements.
- Provide rapid response protection mechanisms for individuals facing serious threats, and ensure coordination between all relevant agencies to warn targeted individuals.
Support
- Provide a clear, accessible and trusted point of contact for individuals experiencing TNR to access advice and support.
- Support individuals, communities and family members to access legal assistance, humanitarian visas and temporary traveling documents, as well as other potential avenues of redress.
- Provide appropriate physical or digital protections for victims or targets of TNR.
- Develop national guidance and provide training for local and national law enforcement and first responders about transnational repression, including tactics that might not be criminal offences but warrant attention.
Prevent
- Develop evidence-based proposals for necessary legislative and regulatory changes.
- Develop legal and diplomatic mechanisms to penalise perpetrators of TNR.
- Investigate and hold to account UK institutions, systems or professional industries complicit in TNR.
If you are interested to find out more about the working group and/or to enquire about joining, please email: [email protected]
1 Aug 2025 | Africa, Americas, DR Congo, Europe and Central Asia, Israel, Middle East and North Africa, News and features, Palestine, United Kingdom, United States
In the age of online information, it can feel harder than ever to stay informed. As we get bombarded with news from all angles, important stories can easily pass us by. To help you cut through the noise, every Friday Index publishes a weekly news roundup of some of the key stories covering censorship and free expression. This week, we look at the killing of a Palestinian activist, and how Jewish comedians had their shows cancelled at Edinburgh Fringe.
Death for a documentary: Palestinian who worked on “No Other Land” killed in West Bank
Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian activist and community leader in the West Bank who worked on Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, was shot and killed outside a community centre on Monday 28 July.
The suspected shooter, identified as settler Yinon Levi, was sanctioned by the UK and EU last year. The incident was recorded, and was posted on X by No Other Land co-director Yuval Abraham. Following the shooting, an ambulance arrived to collect Hathaleen, and despite an autopsy being completed on Wednesday, the Israeli army is reportedly refusing to return his body to his family.
The military has set out demands to the family, including that no mourning tent be set up near Hathaleen’s home, and that he be buried in a nearby city rather than his home village; demands that his family have refused. More than 70 women in the village of Umm al-Kheir where the shooting took place have begun a hunger strike in response to the withholding of Hathaleen’s body, as well as continued arrests and detention for the citizens of the village since the incident. In contrast, Levi was released on house arrest on Tuesday.
Hathaleen had reportedly warned UK parliament about threats to his life before the incident, and he is not the first activist who worked on No Other Land to be attacked. The Palestinian co-director of the film, Hamdan Ballal, was beaten by masked settlers outside his home before he was detained by the IDF in March 2025.
Show’s over: Jewish comedians have Edinburgh Fringe shows cancelled over safety concerns
Two Jewish comedians have had their shows cancelled at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival over “safety concerns” raised by staff at the venue.
Rachel Creeger was one of the comedians to have had her show at Whistlebinkies – the venue in question – cancelled. She told Jewish News that she had previously performed there twice before, and that it was a “safe and happy space” for her. She received the call that her show was cancelled two weeks ahead of the performance date, with bar staff reportedly feeling unsafe with the extra security that was recommended for Jewish comedians.
Phillip Simon, the other comedian due to perform, also had a run of performances at Banshee Labyrinth cancelled. The venue claimed that they had made this decision after screening his social media account, picking out photos from a vigil marking 100 days since the 7 October attack, as well as messages mocking Greta Thunberg’s attempt to bring aid to Gaza via a flotilla. They stated that these posts signified views at odds with Banshee Labyrinth’s “stance against the current Israeli government’s policy and actions”. Simon rejected this claim, arguing that he had only ever supported “freeing the hostages and finding a way for peace”, and that he was “cancelled just for being Jewish”.
The bans have drawn much criticism, with shadow Scotland Secretary Andrew Bowie stating this incident “speaks very ill of the state of affairs in this country” regarding antisemitism. Festival organisers reportedly attempted to find alternate locations for the performances, but the short notice of the cancellations meant that none could be found; the performances have been removed from Fringe Festival’s website.
Taking the government to court: Palestine Action granted permission to challenge their proscription
A co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, has won the right to challenge the proscription of the group as a terrorist organisation in court in a landmark ruling, with a hearing scheduled for November.
Palestine Action was banned under anti-terrorism laws after two members of the group broke into RAF Brize Norton airbase and defaced aircraft. Since then, more than 200 people have been arrested for expressing support for them – a charge punishable by up to 14 years in prison. In July, Laura Murton was threatened with arrest by Kent police under the Terrorism Act despite showing no direct support for Palestine Action, with police being recorded telling her that the phrase “Free Gaza”, which she had written on a sign, was “supportive of Palestine Action”.
Mr Justice Chamberlain, ruling on the case, cited incidents like Murton’s as being “liable to have a chilling effect on those wishing to express legitimate political views”. He stated it was “arguable” that the proscription of the group amounted to a “disproportionate interference” to the rights of freedom of expression and of assembly as they are described in the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). This sentiment echoes that of UN human rights commissioner Volker Türk, who argued that the proscription of the group was an “impermissible restriction” on freedom of expression.
No questions allowed: Three DRC journalists detained for attempting to question a minister
On 23 July, three journalists from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were allegedly beaten and detained by officials after they visited the office of the Tshopo province’s Minister of Finance Patrick Valencio to question him about his appearance in, and alleged funding of, a TV series.
The journalists – KIS24 Info’s Steve Paluku, ElectionNet’s Paul Beyokobana, and Kisangani News newspaper’s Sébastien Mulamba – were reportedly beaten with sticks by officials before being taken to a local police station, where they were forced to stay overnight. Released the next day, the three have been ordered to the prosecutor’s office to meet Valencio.
DRC has repeatedly proven to be an unsafe country for journalists; The African nation ranks 133rd out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index, with more than 50 attacks on journalists and newsrooms being reported in regions of the country mired in conflict with neighboring Rwanda.
Under watchful eyes: USA placed on civil society watchlist
The United States has been placed on a watchlist compiled by global civil society organisations highlighting “serious concerns regarding the exercise of civic freedoms” in the country, alongside nations such as El Salvador and Kenya.
The monthly watchlist, compiled by civil society watchdog CIVICUS, is intended to draw attention to countries in which civil liberties, such as freedom to protest and the free operation of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are in steep decline. CIVICUS states that the US “appears to be sliding deeper into the quicksands of authoritarianism”.
Mandeep Tiwana, secretary general of CIVICUS, cited such incidents as the deployment of over 2000 members of the national guard to counter anti Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protests as reasoning for the US’s place on the watchlist. Tiwana said these incidents were “incompatible with the essence of democracy” and a “preferred tactic of despots around the world”. Tiwana also denounced the targeting and arrest of journalists such as Mario Guevara, who was detained after reporting on the “No Kings” protests in June, as well as the attacks on those who “express solidarity with Palestinian rights,” such as Mahmoud Khalil.
The US is joined on the watchlist by El Salvador, who have built a strong relationship with the US since the beginning of Donald Trump’s second term as president, as well as Turkey, Serbia, Kenya, and Indonesia.
