ESCRs

A damning new report from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, raises alarm about the rise of the digital welfare state, which uses data and technologies to automate, predict, identify, surveil, detect, target and punish the poor.

Among the recommendations made to Cameroon, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights urged the government to improve affordable access to the internet and ensure that any measures seeking to limit internet access comply with international human rights law.

Ahead of Cameroon’s review by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, APC, Access Now and Internet Sans Frontières submitted a joint shadow report encouraging the Committee to consider the relationship between meaningful access to the internet and enjoyment of these rights.

This report focuses on the relationship between meaningful access to the internet and the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights in Cameroon, and in particular, the violation of these rights that come with internet shutdowns.

With its appearance at the Committee, South Africa has recognised the essential role of access to the internet as an enabler of rights. It is critical for the government to continue to engage with civil society and other stakeholders to advance rights-based approaches to internet access.

This report focuses primarily on access to the internet in South Africa and the extent to which the Government of South Africa is ensuring that people are able to benefit from the potential of the internet as an enabler of economic, social and cultural rights.

The purpose of this review was to look back over the past decade of country reports published in Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch) and attempt to identify trends in civil society perspectives on what needed to be done to create a people- centred information society.

APC, Media Monitoring Africa, and the Right2Know Campaign welcome the opportunity to submit this parallel coalition report and submission on the List of Issues (LOIs) to the 61st session of the Pre-Sessional Working Group of the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. This parallel report is submitted in response to the Government of South Africa’s Initial Report to the CESCR...