Human rights and ICTs
Every 66 seconds a post inciting hatred against Palestinians was shared on social media platforms in 2018. Almost half a million calls for violent actions and racist slurs were registered. From all the posts mentioning the term “Arabs”, 1 out of 10 contain an insult or an invitation to violence against Palestinians. These are some of the revelations included in the Index of Racism and Incitement in Israeli Social Media 2018, launched by APC member 7amleh-The Arab Center for Soci...
The transformative power of the internet has offered unprecedented access to information, possibilities for socioeconomic growth and the opportunity for increased exercise of a range of human rights, including cultural, social and economic rights and freedom of expression. Global growth in connectivity, however, has begun to slow and, for many, meaningful access to the internet remains elusive. Women are most affected by this digital divide worldwide. According to the International Telecommun...
The 40th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) opened Monday with an address by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres in which he highlighted some of the key challenges for human rights today, including threats in digital environment. The Secretary-General expressed his deep alarm over the shrinking civic space in every region of the globe – and every corner of the internet, the...
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and 7amleh - The Arab Centre for Social Media Advancement submit this statement ahead of the Human Rights Council 40th session to express our grave concern about the dramatic upsurge in the number of laws being put forth by Israeli legislators that violate the right to privacy and freedom of expression and often exhibit racist and discriminat...
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 incr...
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 Eco...
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...
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2019
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