In defence of the informed mind The applicability of international human rights law for the conduct of extraterritorial influence operations by States

The thesis aims to explore how international human rights law applies to the conduct of disinformation, propaganda and other cognitive manipulations by foreign States. In light of the revolutionary developments in information technology and the parallel dependency on mediated information exchange in modern societies, the study examines novel legal problems raised by foreign cognitive influence operations from the perspective of the individual directly targeted or indirectly affected. The thesis raises the issue of extraterritorial applicability of human rights in cognitive operations lacking a direct physical impact and examines the compatibility of such State activities with selected substantive human rights and freedoms that aim to protect the receipt, processing and exchange of information against impermissible interference by a State. The research aims to contribute to an ongoing academic debate concerning the role of human rights law in the information era, with a plea to international human rights law in defence of the informed mind.