Human rights and ICTs
As an organisation that has worked at the intersections of human rights and technology for nearly three decades, APC welcomes the focus of the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association (FoAA) in his next report on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association in the digital age. For those who have access to the internet, it is becoming increasingly difficult to imagine life without it. Meaningful use of the internet has become a necessary...
Intentional disruptions of internet access – commonly known as internet shutdowns – restrict a range of human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights (ESCRs). Ahead of Cameroon’s review at the 65th session of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) (18 February-8 March 2019), where the government’s compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) will be examined, APC, together with Access Now and Inter...
This report focuses on the relationship between meaningful access to the internet and the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights (ESCRs) in Cameroon, and in particular, the violation of these rights that come with internet shutdowns. Accordingly, it relates to articles 1, 2, 6, 12, 13 and 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). While access ...
Dear Members of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs The undersigned organizations and individuals are dedicated to ensuring justice for human rights abuses around the world and to upholding human rights, including the right to freedom of expression. We rely on online platforms to both find and share evidence of these abuses and to counter official misinformation from repr...
Re: Internet shutdown in Zimbabwe Your Excellency Minister Kazembe Kazembe, Minister of Information and Communication Technology and Cyber Security We are writing to urgently request that you ensure the stability and openness of the internet in Zimbabwe. We have received reports that your government has shut down the internet. On behalf of the more than 170 organizations from over 60 countries ...
Last month, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) wrapped up its main session, passing a record number of resolutions relevant for internet policy. This two-part article outlines major developments in UNGA’s First Committee, which are significant for the development of international norms in cyberspace, and in the Third Committee, which covers a range of internet-related human rights issues. While i...
This paper focuses on recent initiatives in three countries (Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania) to “tax” the internet through introducing excise duties on, essentially, internet access and/or use. The East African focus was not intentional, as these kinds of taxation initiatives are occurring in a number of regions in Africa. However, these are countries that have made actual legal enactments (whe...
Together with Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and 70 human rights organisations, APC signed a joint letter to Google's CEO Sundar Pichai concerning Google's plans to launch a censored search engine in China ahead of his testimony before US Congress on 11 December. The project, code-named Dragonfly, is reportedly in development and would be designed to meet the censorship requir...
To: Sundar Pichai, Chief Executive Officer, Google Inc cc: Ben Gomes, Vice President of Search; Kent Walker, Senior Vice President of Global Affairs; Scott Beaumont, Vice President, Greater China and Korea 11 December 2018 Dear Mr. Pichai, We are writing to ask you to ensure that Google drops Project Dragonfly and any plans to launch a censored search app in China, and to re-affirm the compan...
3 December, 2018. Dear <<First Name>> <<Last Name>>, The Proposal for the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market has been analysed and criticised by many human rights and digital rights organisations. We point to Article 13 as one of the most problematic parts of the proposed Directive. In the last few months, there have been some positive developments regar...
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2018
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