Human rights and ICTs
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Derechos Digitales and Media Matters for Democracy welcome the opportunity to provide this submission on the human rights impacts of the introduction of digital technologies in the implementation of national social protection systems (NSPS). As a point of departure, we recognise that digital technologies can have a role to play in delivering social protection benefits efficiently. However, caution must be exercised by all stakeholders to e...
Background: In July 2018, the United Nations Secretary-General announced the creation of a new High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation. In advance of the Panel's first meeting, the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), together with civil society partners, issued an open letter to help shape the Panel's work. Over the last year, APC and member organisations have contributed to a series of consultations carried out by the Panel. On 10 June 2019, the Panel's report was made public a...
APC will be at RightsCon Tunis, the first RightsCon summit hosted in the Middle East and North Africa, where more than 2,500 expert practitioners will come together across over 400 sessions to shape, contribute to, and drive forward the global agenda for the future of human rights in the digital age. APC will join RightsCon to promote conversations on a range of issues, including...
Access to the internet is becoming subject to increasing restrictions worldwide, including numerous African countries, as we reported a few months ago in “It’s like being cut off from the world”. This is particularly so in the case of Uganda, where the newest member of the APC network, Unwanted Witness, is based. We talked to Dorothy Mukasa, executive director of the organisation, about c...
The Stockholm Internet Forum (SIF) is conceived as “a platform for advancing a free, open and secure internet as a driver of development.” Organised by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) every two years, it gathers together hundreds of participants from around the world and a wide range of stakeholder groups for the exchange of ideas, knowledge and collaboration. At this ye...
Unwanted Witness was established in 2012 by a group of netizens, bloggers, activists, writers and human rights defenders as an independent, non-partisan and not-for-profit civil society organisation. It seeks to create secure uncensored online platforms to promote human rights through writing, informing and educating citizens who also utilise the platforms for strengthening free expression an...
In 2018 the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) affirmed that the “surveillance of digital communications must be consistent with international human rights obligations” and in accordance with a “publicly accessible, clear, precise, comprehensive and nondiscriminatory” legal framework, without any arbitrary or unlawful interference with the right to privacy. UNGA called on states and...
Dear President Juncker, Dear First Vice-President Timmermans, Dear Vice-President Ansip, Dear Commissioner Gabriel, Dear Director General Roberto Viola, The undersigned stakeholders represent fundamental rights organisations, the knowledge community (in particular libraries), free and open source software developers, and communities from across the European Union. The new Directive on Copyright...
In a scenario that is increasingly visual, video has become a powerful tool to challenge social and environmental injustice. But making change is not as simple as making a video. This is how APC member EngageMedia presents its newly launched Video for Change Impact Toolkit, an online resource that can help activists harness the power of video to advocate for issues as pressing as extrajudicial ...
Events in the first quarter of 2019 indicate that Africa urgently needs to agree on a homegrown strategy for the protection and promotion of online rights and freedoms on the continent. During the Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum (DRIF) held in Lagos, Nigeria on 24-25 April 2019, at a session hosted by APC on behalf of the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms Secretariat, parti...
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2019
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