Call for proposals: GISWatch 2026 special edition with Safety for Voices

Safety for Voices: Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch) Special Edition 2026

Call for proposals 

Deadline: 15 January 2026

This document tells you how to contribute a country report proposal for the 2026 special edition of Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch). It also provides background on the Safety for Voices project, details the themes of the special edition, and tells you more about the process of contributing country reports. 

The proposal structure provided below should be used in writing your proposals. Proposals should be submitted by no later should than 15 January to:

GISWatch co-ordinator: Maja Romano - maja@apc.org 

cc’ing GISWatch editor: Alan Finlay – editor@giswatch.org 

Introduction and background

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) Safety for Voices project is a five-year project supported by the Dutch foreign ministry. It seeks to support the work of women and gender-diverse human rights defenders (WHRDs)[1] working online in vulnerable contexts in the Global South. As part of this work it will be publishing a special edition of Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch)[2] in early 2026, on the theme: 

WHRDs and technologies of control: Feminist resistance to war, environmental devastation and digital repression. 

As digital technologies rapidly advance, their implications for WHRDs, often operating in precarious contexts, are increasingly significant. Technology represents both an opportunity and a risk: a tool for mobilisation, storytelling and connection, yet equally a site of surveillance, violence, exclusion and political struggle. Unequal access to technology due to race, gender, class and location, often shaped by colonial legacies of repression, alongside state surveillance and targeted violence, prevent WHRDs from using the internet freely and effectively. Addressing these inequalities and barriers is essential to building more just and equitable digital futures. 

Findings from regional consultations organised by Safety for Voices in Latin America, Africa and Asia-Pacific highlighted the urgent and intersectional[3] challenges faced by WHRDs globally. These include:

• Deep digital divides exacerbated by systemic inequalities such as gender, geography and access to resources.
• A continuum of violence where online and offline threats intersect, undermining the safety, security and wellbeing of WHRDs.
• The rise of technologies of control, and the intensifying use of digital technologies in war and conflict, which further endanger WHRDs in authoritarian, fragile and conflict-affected regions.

Despite these challenges, WHRDs remain at the forefront of resistance and resilience, reclaiming technology to build solidarity, counter disinformation and advance movements for justice. In this context, a feminist approach to technology – grounded in autonomy, care, and agency – emerges as not only necessary but transformative.

This edition of GISWatch will explore the critical intersection of technology, safety and human rights activism through the lens of the work of WHRDs, providing a platform for voices and perspectives that are often sidelined in global discussions on technology and governance. It aims to offer actionable, grounded analysis while helping to inform and advance strategies for collective protection, feminist advocacy and inclusive digital futures.

The edition will include 12 thematic and regional reports, and 20 country reports. 

Please note: While we are extending this call to all countries in the Global South and organisations in developed countries allied with APC’s objectives, we already have reports from the following countries: South Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia, Philippines, Sudan and Turkey. 

How to submit a proposal

1. Please review Appendix 1 and 2 of this document before writing your proposal.

2. Proposal details: 

Your country report proposal needs to be no more than 1.5 pages (800 words), and include the following information (please use these points as sub-headings):

• Name of country where your organisation is based and that you will write about
• Your organisation’s name
• Authors who will be writing the report.
• Their email address/es
• Briefly state the country context facing WHRDs in your country (200 words)
• What specific aspect of this context will your report address? (200 words)
• How will digital technologies be emphasised in your report – what will you focus on (e.g. legislation, threats, the use of digital technologies by WHRDs, state surveillance)? (200 words)
• What unexplored issue do you intend to explore in your report – i.e. what will make your report unique? (100 words)
• How will you go about researching and writing your report (e.g. online research, drawing on personal experience, holding an online meeting with WHRDs or other organisations, interviewing WHRDs)? (100 words)
• Will you use any Artificial Intelligence in your report research process or in writing the report? (please explain)

3. Please send the proposal in an email attachment to: GISWatch co-ordinator Maja Romano, cc’ing Alan Finlay, the editor of GISWatch. 

If you have any questions about this process please write to Maja, cc’ing Alan.

We look forward to reading your proposals! 

Appendix 1: Country report focus areas 

What are the country reports?

Country reports serve as tools for advocacy for the authors, as a way of building capacity in organisations, and to connect with others. Methods of compiling the reports may include literature reviews, projects reviews, online meetings with activists, interviews, policy reviews, or a range of other research and storytelling techniques. Once published collectively in the special edition, the country reports will contribute to a broader understanding of regional and global trends, helping the Safety for Voices project and its partners identify common challenges, amplify diverse experiences, and strengthen collective advocacy efforts.

Country report authors are being asked to write directly from their experiences as WHRDs, or organisations that work closely with WHRDs, and in a way that both reflects local realities and is most relevant for their advocacy work. They should also offer as much local evidence as possible to support their perspectives, while following a country report template which provides guidance to their reports. This country report template will be provided if your proposal is successful.

This proposed special edition of GISWatch will highlight four areas impacting the work of WHRDs across the Global South. Country report authors are encouraged to select the most relevant area for discussion in their country report from one or a combination of these areas. 

The areas of focus are: 

1. Digital divides and inclusion and how these impact the work of WHRDs
2. Digital safety and surveillance
3. Technologies of control, war, crisis, and conflict
4. Building resilience and feminist alternatives.

An elaboration of each of these focus areas is included below. 

Country report authors will also be expected to take cognisance of a feminist holistic security approach[4] which is integral to the Safety for Voices project. 

1. Digital divides and inclusion

The digital divide remains a persistent barrier to meaningful participation and collective care and protection for WHRDs, limiting both their access to support systems and their ability to mobilise safely. Key issues include:

• Unequal access to technology: The high cost of connectivity, devices and skills training is a barrier for WHRDs, particularly those in rural, marginalised, or island communities.
• Systemic inequities: Socio-cultural barriers and gendered norms restrict how women access and engage with technology and their ability to exercise agency over digital tools. They have a significant impact on their abilities to carry on defending human rights in a safe, connected, caring, and supportive environment.

2. Digital safety and surveillance

The rise of online threats, surveillance, and targeted attacks has created an environment of heightened insecurity for WHRDs. Targeted disinformation campaigns, particularly against WHRDs, pose serious threats to their reputations, activism, and safety. The deliberate spread of false information is a tactic frequently used to delegitimise feminist movements, necessitating stronger mechanisms to counteract online smear campaigns. Key issues include:

• Online violence and harassment: From doxxing and cyberstalking to technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), WHRDs face online threats that mirror and amplify the offline realities of gendered violence, further jeopardising their safety, security, and ability to carry out their work.
• Surveillance technologies: The misuse of surveillance tools by authoritarian states and malign actors, particularly in authoritarian regimes and conflict zones, has placed WHRDs under greater scrutiny.
• Big tech accountability: There is a need to ensure corporations are held responsible for the harms their platforms inflict on WHRDs, including amplifying online violence and gender hatred, and failing to provide effective redress mechanisms, all of which undermine feminist holistic security. This includes addressing how Big Tech’s extractive business models – such as data mining and the sourcing of rare earth minerals – impact the privacy of WHRDs and the physical territories and ecosystems they defended, such as those protecting land, Indigenous sovereignty, and environmental rights.

3. Technologies of control, war, crisis, and conflict 

For WHRDs operating in war, crisis, and authoritarian contexts, technology has become deeply intertwined with violence, displacement, repression, and environmental destruction. Key issues include: 

• The weaponisation of technology: How digital tools are deployed by authoritarian regimes and other actors to track, control, harm, or silence WHRDs in war zones and crisis-affected areas, further threatening their safety and autonomy. Addressing this requires frameworks that challenge such technologies while centring feminist holistic security.
• Context-specific safety frameworks: Developing feminist holistic security approaches that respond to the realities of WHRDs in precarious environments, ensuring their physical, digital, emotional, and collective safety in the face of authoritarian surveillance, violence, and conflict. This includes digital surveillance that is increasingly weaponised against those working on land and climate justice.

4. Building resilience and feminist alternatives

Despite the challenges, WHRDs are reclaiming technology to advance their work and build stronger movements. Key issues include:

• A feminist holistic protection framework: Learnings from local strategies implemented by WHRDs to strengthen their integral individual and collective care.
• Feminist-led policy advocacy for the safety of WHRDs: Advocating for gender, digital, security, and environmental protection policies and regulations that reflect the lived realities of WHRDs and prioritise intersectional, context-specific approaches over top-down frameworks.
• Technology as a tool for movement-building: Using storytelling, counter-narratives, and mobilisation to challenge systems of oppression and promote justice.
• Strategies for building collective resilience: Strengthening solidarity networks and grassroots-led initiatives that empower WHRDs to resist control, mitigate risks, and ensure sustained protection in their struggles for justice.
• Feminist digital infrastructures: Local, feminist, and decolonial alternatives to mainstream technological systems.

Appendix 2: Process of selecting proposals and writing your report 

• Proposals will be reviewed on 16 January 2026, and you will be informed by 30 January whether or not your proposal has been successful.
• Once you have been given the go-ahead to write, you should sign an MOU which will be sent to you, as well as review a country report template and an APC style and referencing guide that will also be sent.
  You will have one month to complete your first full draft, which should be submitted to the editor of GISWatch by 28 February 2026.
• The length of the country report is 2300 words.
• Your report will then be carefully edited, and detailed feedback provided, which you will need to respond to. The timeline of the editing process will be determined by the number of reports received simultaneously.
• An honorarium of USD700 will be paid to country report authors once the report has gone through the editing process and is finalised. The is an honorarium per country report. Should more than one author write a country report, how the USD700 is divided amongst the authors will be the responsibility of the lead author.  

Notes