CEU eTD Collection (2022); Al Sairafi, Zainab: Cybersecurity challenges for Human Rights Defenders in Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC)

CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
Author Al Sairafi, Zainab
Title Cybersecurity challenges for Human Rights Defenders in Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC)
Summary Human rights defenders in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are exposed to privacy violations and surveillance in cyberspace, which prevents them from practicing their human rights work with high professionalism and restricts civil society space in these countries. However, these challenges faced by human rights defenders due to the absence of cybersecurity in Gulf Cooperation Council GCC countries have not been mapped so far. This thesis analyzes the problem of the lack of cybersecurity for human rights defenders in the Gulf Cooperation Council GCC countries to determine the impact of cybersecurity threats on human rights activism. Secondary data collected from research papers and reports issued by human rights organizations will be analyzed, along with primary data collected from four face-to-face semi-structured interviews with human rights defenders from the Gulf Cooperation Council GCC countries who are living in exile for political reasons and two online interviews with an expert in digital rights who works with international human rights organizations. This thesis finds that human rights defenders in the Gulf Cooperation Council GCC countries do not have cybersecurity, as governments have controlled cyberspace by using surveillance technology to prevent them from continuing their human rights work.
Keywords: Cybersecurity, GCC countries, Human Rights defenders, Surveillance technology
Supervisor Cameran Ashraf
Department Public Policy MA
Full texthttps://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/al-sairafi_zainab.pdf

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