In March of 2026, the United Nations Human Rights Committee called for input on its first draft of a “General Comment” on the Freedom of Association under Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that was first proposed in July of 2025. At The Regulatory Review, Affiliated Faculty Member Rangita de Silva de Alwis suggests several additions to the document: first, that freedom of assembly is essential for women’s bottom-up peacebuilding movements and second, that the evolving technology landscape poses new risks for women assembling in digital and offline spaces.

Rangita de Silva de Alwis is Senior Adjunct Professor of Global Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and Member-Elect to the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). She is also a member of CERL’s Affiliated Faculty. Read her bio here.

The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of any organization or university.