Human rights and ICTs
Given that digital technologies and the laws and norms that govern them have the potential to perpetuate and worsen pre-existing structural inequalities, APC and Derechos Digitales believe that a central element of this future convention should be the integration of a gender perspective.
In its statement, APC member Derechos Digitales stresses that the Compact being drafted should provide for proactive actions towards building effective multistakeholder processes and increasing broader participation in all digital cooperation and internet governance discussions.
In its statement to the Thematic Deep-Dive session organised to gather input for the Global Digital Compact, APC member organisation Derechos Digitales outlines a series of factors that must be taken into account in any attempts to increase digital inclusion and connectivity.
In its statement to the Thematic Deep-Dive session organised to gather input for the Global Digital Compact, APC member organisation Colnodo, based in Colombia, highlighted the contribution that can be made by community networks to connect the unconnected.
In spite of expanding awareness on online and technology-facilitated gender-based violence, there has only been an increase in the violence online in the last decade. Feminist research points to ways to address this ongoing challenge.
India imposed 84 internet shutdowns in 2022, the highest number globally for the fifth year in a row. APC joins a global civil society coalition to urgently ask the Indian government to create meaningful safeguards for citizens' digital rights and ensure unfettered access to an open, secure and reliable internet.
Last year saw the highest number of internet shutdowns ever recorded. Such enforced digital darkness is a slippery slope of easy authoritarianism that we see spreading globally, one that countries like India, with the world's highest number of shutdowns, are using to gain undemocratic compliance from their citizens.
Sex workers in South Africa moved to the internet to seek clients as the offline opportunities dwindled due to the pandemic-induced lockdown. But they face previously unknown challenges with the prevalent online gender-based violence in the country.
This submission was produced in response to the call for contributions to the thematic report of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and comprises inputs collated from the experiences of APC staff and members, organised according to the guiding questions proposed in the call.
The design and development of digital language technologies, and especially the technologies relying on large language models like ChatGPT, call for a deep power analysis on who is building this technology, who will benefit from it and who will decide its future.
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2022
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