Human rights and ICTs
Dr. Wairagala Wakabi, Executive Director of the Uganda-based Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), has been detained upon arrival at the Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, earlier today. Immigration authorities have declined to state the basis of his arrest. Dr. Wakabi had been invited to Tanzania to participate in the annual commemoration of the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders’ Day hosted by the Tanzania Human Rights ...
Access to the internet is growing in African countries, representing an efficient development tool, but also posing serious threats to human rights. In a bid to mitigate the risks, the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms with its 13 key principles was adopted by the African Commission on Human and People’s rights in Banjul (Gambia), on 4 November 2016. In Cameroon, despite the numerous programmes put in place by the government with the support of informat...
If you are a designer, an artist, an illustrator or passionate about freedom of expression, internet rights and the power of tech, we invite you to take part in this contest! What is the contest about? APC invites artists, cartoonists, illustrators, designers, doodle enthusiasts and anyone passionate about human rights online, in particular social movements, freedom of religion, freedom of expr...
The African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms Secretariat and several members of the African Declaration Coalition met in Entebbe, Uganda to brainstorm on the building blocks of a 36-month strategic plan for cultivating an environment that respects human rights online in the region. The new strategic plan will be developed as part of the “Securing human rights online in Africa throu...
How can we improve the usability of legal data for civil society, human rights defenders and lawyers? A session was hosted at the Internet Freedom Festival for legal researchers, journalists, civil society advocates and human rights defenders seeking to shape rapidly evolving legal frameworks for digital rights worldwide. CYRILLA, created by APC member Social Media Exchange (SMEX) with the supp...
This post is adapted from an article originally published on Rudi International's website. During its first (2009) and second (2014) Universal Periodic Review (UPR) cycles, 395 recommendations were made to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The government supported more than 80% of the recommendations made. But none of these recommendations touched on human rights onlin...
A new report on Palestinian digital rights was launched by APC member 7amleh-The Arab Center for Social Media Advancement, which received an APC project grant in 2018. The report details violations by governments, authorities, international technology companies and Palestinian society. In 2018, the Israeli government continued to systematically target Palestinians ...
The Human Rights Protocol Considerations Research Group (HRPC) in the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) is about to gather for its 11th meeting in a little over three years. The meeting will be held Thursday 28 March at 16:10 CET (15:10 UTC). Remote participation is possible and an audio feed is also available. Origin of the HRPC The idea for the Human Rights Protocol Considerations Research ...
International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) update: The draft resolution on environmental human rights defenders has now been formally "tabled" at the Human Rights Council, meaning it is scheduled for consideration and adoption by the Council on 22 and 23 March. The draft resolution is a timely and important statement on the vital role of environmental human rights defenders in safeguarding ...
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...
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