Newsletter Mar 30, 2026 HRF’s AI for Individual Rights Newsletter #8 We begin with research from the African Digital Rights Network, which documents how 11 African countries have collectively spent more than $2 billion on Chinese-built “smart city” AI-powered surveillance systems.
Blog Post Dec 22, 2025 Transnational Repression: A Year in Review At home, autocrats, having consolidated their power, enjoy near-total impunity, crushing dissent through brutality, prisons, torture, and censorship.
Blog Post Dec 22, 2025 Weaponizing the International System Authoritarian regimes have more tools than ever at their disposal to target dissidents and activists abroad.
Blog Post Dec 22, 2025 Violence Beyond Borders Transnational repression has become a common tactic for authoritarian regimes seeking suppression of dissent beyond their borders. With the rapid spread of technology, globalization, and unprecedented ease of global mobility, it is easier than ever for regimes to reach their opponents, even from thousands of miles away.
Publication Dec 3, 2025 Joint appeal for a Council of Europe Convention on Transnational Repression We, the undersigned civil society organisations, call upon the Member States of the Council of Europe to take urgent and collective action to address the growing phenomenon of transnational repression (TNR) through the adoption of a Council of Europe Convention dedicated to preventing and combating this serious and evolving threat to human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe.
Press Release Apr 25, 2025 Venezuela’s Maduro Continues to Use Tren de Aragua for Transnational Repression, Kidnapping, Assassination The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) condemns Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro for using the Tren de Aragua criminal network to target and eliminate dissidents beyond Venezuela’s borders. New evidence from a Chilean prosecutor’s investigation has confirmed that the February 2024 abduction and assassination of former Venezuelan army lieutenant Ronald Ojeda in Chile was a politically motivated murder, ordered by Maduro’s regime and executed by members of Tren de Aragua.
Blog Post Jan 15, 2024 Beyond Borders: China’s Transnational Repression of Uyghurs In March, Turkish police raided a bookstore in Istanbul, accusing it of selling copies of Uyghur books banned by the Chinese regime without proper copyright.
Blog Post Apr 7, 2023 Like, Tweet, & Torment: Transnational Repression in the Digital Age A typical move in the dictator’s handbook is not only oppressing those within the country but silencing voices of dissent outside the country. And technology has only made it easier.
Blog Post Dec 17, 2021 Igniting the Truth on Transnational Repression It is no secret that over the past several years, respect for democratic institutions and human rights has deteriorated around the world.
