Digital Rights
Internet governance and digital rights are essential in ensuring basic human rights continue to be operational online and offline. Digital rights are human rights and the rapid digitalization taking place has provided opportunities for the enjoyment of these rights, but also potential for negative impacts.
Our Digital Rights Projects
This project focused on digital rights, specifically on lobbying, advocacy and campaigning for democratic and human rights-respecting internet legislation in Zambia. The initiative aims at expanding protections and citizen awareness around digital rights, freedom of expression, and access to information in Zambia.
(PDD) sets a focus on strengthening CSO networks and their capacity in evidence-based advocacy and monitoring the implementation of Cyber legislation and policies. This includes supporting state stakeholders to monitoring of legislations and strategic plans in the field of Cyber legislation.
This was a partnership project with PANOS Institute Southern Africa and the support of Open Society Initiative, the project ran from November 2020 to June 2021 and sought to debunk misinformation through the development and deployment of verified and accurate information, build the capacity of interlocutors such as the media, bloggers, and artistes to verify and disseminate accurate information on COVID-19 and democratic processes as well as build a movement of citizens and information actors to share and promote the use of verified and accurate information on COVID-19 and democratic spaces in Zambia.
This partnership promotes enabling environments and sustainable sources of journalism and civic participation, making it possible for the media and civil society to provide citizens with the information, analysis and support they need to realize their human rights and civic freedoms in Sub-Saharan Africa.
With support from USAID, our work seeks to strengthen the democratic foundations of freedom of speech and assembly; build independent and new media; and safeguard space for activists, human rights defenders (HRDs), and oppositional voices to protect shrinking democratic space in Zambia. Under the lead of FHI 360, with support from Internews and local partners MISA-Zambia and Panos Institute Southern Africa.