Case summary
The case is set in Uxi, a prosperous island state with strong constitutional protections for privacy and freedom of expression, a free press tradition, and a leading public university, the National University of Uxi (NUU). However, Uxi faces growing security concerns from instability in nearby Camapú, where extreme inequality, cartel violence, drug trafficking, and migration pressures have destabilised the region. According to newspapers, in 2023 the cartels from Camapú were initiating a move to expand their power to neighbouring countries, including Uxi.
In response to the perceive threat from Camapú cartels, Uxi enacted the National Security Act 2024 (UNSA), which gave authorities broad powers to intercept communications, search electronic devices at borders, detain and deport “subjects of interest,” and act in the name of national security. Civil society groups challenged the law, but the Constitutional Court declined to rule at that stage because no directly affected individual had yet come forward.
The dispute centres on Dr Regias Vitoria and Graviola Tapera.
Dr Regias Vitoria is a Camapú national, respected computer science academic at NUU, permanent resident of Uxi, and former senior adviser to Uxi’s Ministry of Science and Technology. She resigned from government in 2025 and moved temporarily to Jambo, where she was undertaking a sabbatical. It was then she began publicly campaigning against the use of facial recognition technology, warning of risks to privacy, transparency, and migrants. At a conference at NUU, she and her co-authors urged Uxi either to ban or strictly regulate facial recognition. Soon after, she launched the online campaign “Stop Big Brother,” which gained major public attention and fuelled speculation that Uxi was already secretly deploying such technology.
When returning to Jambo through Uxi airport, Dr Vitoria was stopped under the UNSA. Police required that she unlock her phone, tablet, and computer, and proceeded to search her devices and luggage. Police officers, thus, had access to her emails, messages, and social media accounts, as these services were logged into on her devices. During her detention, she was questioned for three hours about her resignation and her links to Graviola Tapera, an investigative journalist and editor of the Jambo-based outlet Broken Code, and kept her computer for further investigation. Upon landing in Jambo, she noticed that her telephone was making beeping and scratching sounds whenever she received or made a phone call.
Graviola was preparing an exposé alleging that Uxi was unlawfully spying on citizens and migrants, using covert facial recognition technology, especially against Camapú migrants, and even monitoring journalists abroad. Before publication, Uxi’s authorities obtained a court injunction blocking access to Broken Code’s website within Uxi on national security grounds as Intelligence Services had discovered that Graviola was about to publish an article on Broken Code about Uxi’s intelligence services. The website remained inaccessible from Uxi for ten days, until the exposé was removed worldwide.
Following the blocking order, both women posted messages protesting censorship and surveillance. At the same time, concerns about surveillance of journalists were raised before Uxi’s Intelligence and National Security Tribunal, which explained the formal legal framework for surveillance under the UNSA but did not confirm or deny the use of spyware or covert facial recognition.
Shortly afterwards, NUU suspended Dr Vitoria after being informed by Uxi’s intelligence authorities that she had allegedly removed classified information from the Ministry and disclosed it to unauthorised persons, including Graviola. Public support for Dr Vitoria grew rapidly online through the anonymous @FightForVitoria account, which framed her treatment as retaliation for speaking out. Protests followed on campus, with slogans linked to her campaign, and police detained a number of students of Camapú origin; media reports suggested facial recognition technology had been used to identify some of these students and that some faced deportation.
The situation escalated further when Uxi’s prosecutor successfully sought the rescission of Dr Vitoria’s permanent residency under Article 50 of the UNSA. After an investigation requested by NUU, Uxi’s intelligence agency concluded that Dr Vitoria was behind the @FightForVitoria account. NUU then terminated her employment, citing disruption to university operations and reputational harm.
Dr Vitoria and Graviola challenged the State and NUU before Uxi’s Constitutional Court, alleging unlawful surveillance, interference with journalistic source protection, censorship, and retaliation for protected expression. The Court dismissed all claims, holding that there was insufficient evidence of unlawful or disproportionate interference and deferring to the government’s national security justification, the intelligence findings, and NUU’s autonomy.
The matter now comes before the Universal Court of Human Rights, which has agreed to hear the joined applications of Dr Vitoria and Graviola under Articles 17 and 19 of the ICCPR.
The two certified issues are: first, whether Uxi’s alleged monitoring of journalists’ communications and blocking of Broken Code’s website violated Graviola’s rights to privacy and freedom of expression; and second, whether Uxi’s monitoring of Dr Vitoria’s communications, termination of her university employment, and removal of her permanent residency because of her online activity violated Dr Vitoria’s rights to privacy and freedom of expression. They seek declarations that their rights were violated and orders requiring Uxi to comply with its obligations under the ICCPR.