uganda
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 challenging internet shutdowns and other violations of human rights online in a country with high lev...
APC joined Rhizomatica, Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), the AfChix Uganda chapter, BOSCO Uganda and the Internet Society to submit comments to a public consultation on the proposed review of the licensing framework for the telecommunications sector in Uganda. The submission emphasises the need to enable alternative approaches to broadband delivery that can complement existing network operator models, and the consequent need for enabling regulat...
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 ann...
The UN estimates that 95% of aggressive behaviour, harassment, abusive language and denigrating images in online spaces are aimed at women and come from current or former male partners. For such cases, it is then referred to as Technology-related Violence Against Women (Tech-related VAW). Tech-related VAW encompasses acts of gender-based violence that are committed, abetted or aggrava...
This member story was featured in the 2017 APC Annual Report, as part of our work on a feminist internet. On 26 October 2017, WOUGNET held a national local level conversation on the Feminist Principles of the Internet (FPIs) under a project funded by the UN Women Fund for Gender Equality, combined with a capacity-building activity funded under our Women’s Rights Online project, seeing as both...
Article republished from CIPESA's website. As of midnight on July 1, 2018, telecom companies in Uganda blocked access to social media platforms for all users and required them to pay a newly introduced Over-The-Top (OTT) tax before regaining access. The tax resulted from a March 2018 presidential directive for social media to be taxed to raise resources “to cope with the consequences” ...
Oral statement delivered under Item 3: General Debate UN Human Rights Council 38th Session 25 June 2018 Thank you, Mr. President. This statement is delivered on behalf of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), Derechos Digitales, and the Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET). As organisations committ...
The UN Women Fund for Gender Equality Project implemented by WOUGNET and WomensNet in South Africa entitled “Increasing women’s decision making and influence in internet governance and ICT policy for the realization of women’s rights in Africa” was conceived with the aim of: i) increasing the capacity of women in the two countries to discuss, analyse, respond to and influence policy on ...
A survey carried out in 2014 by the Uganda Communications Commission found that only 6% of women in Uganda are online. Kampala has the largest gender gap in internet access across 10 cities surveyed by research commissioned by the World Wide Web Foundation. Only 21% of women reported having used the internet, verses 61% for men. The gender gap in internet access in Uganda is real and perpetuate...
