African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms
Capacity building on internet governance in Africa will take another step forward with the fifth annual African School on Internet Governance (AfriSIG 2017), taking place on 28 November to 2 December 2017 in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. The school, organised by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), received an overwhelming response to its call for applications this year, which was launched shortly after AfriSIG received a World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prize as an o...
Africa as a whole is facing a critical crisis when it comes to digital rights. Internet shutdowns are on the rise, breach of privacy is becoming common, and arbitrary charges and prosecution of journalists, bloggers and common citizens over critical opinions expressed on internet are rampant. It seems like everyone is waking up to the fact that after restricting physical civic spaces and making it difficult for citizens to express themselves offline, it is now online spaces that are under att...
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is pleased to announce the call for applications for the fifth African School on Internet Governance (AfriSIG). The 2017 School will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt from 28 November to 2 December, to coincide with the African Internet Governance Forum (AfIGF) which will also take place in Sharm El-Sheikh, from 4 to 6 December...
This is a joint submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review on its 2018 Cycle for Cameroon, by Access Now, ADISI-Cameroun, APC and Internet Sans Frontières. The organisations submitting this report consider that Cameroon can improve its human rights record and treatment of digital rights in several areas and make recommendations to the government of Cameroon...
The African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms, commonly called the African Declaration (AD), is a pan-African initiative to promote human rights standards and principles of openness in internet policy formulation and implementation on the continent. The AD is intended to elaborate on the principles which are necessary to uphold human and peoples' rights and to cultivate an internet en...
At the launch of the fourth annual Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa, hosted for the first time in Southern Africa by the Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), over 150 policy makers, civil society actors, technologists and intergovernmental agencies took part in ce...
The ability to receive and impart information online, in particular through the internet, has become central to the exercise and enjoyment of fundamental human rights and freedoms. It enables people to engage in an array of learning experiences, build information and knowledge societies, foster public and private debate, establish organisations, and contribute to public interest innovation. Thr...
28 May 2017 We, the participants at the Roundtable on “The Role of National Human Rights Institutions in Protecting and Promoting Human Rights Online” held in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa, from 26 to 28 May 2017, drawn from representatives of some national human rights institutions and civil society organisations across Africa: Observing that national human rights institutions (...
A coalition of some 35 civil society organisations has written to several international bodies including the African Union and the United Nations Human Rights Council over the recent internet shutdown in Togo. Signatories to the letter include Paradigm Initiative, Reporters Without Borders, World Wide Web Foundation, Access Now, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), G...
In parts of Africa, governments have promulgated cybercrime legislation which has been used to prosecute and intimidate citizens for making any critical expression against governing regimes. They are also introducing special legislation that suspends or limits online mobilisation. But the internet has also increased, among others, people's ability to organise political activity, and increased t...

Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2017
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