African declaration on Internet rights and freedoms for launch at 2014 IGF

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The African Declaration Drafter’s Group is pleased to present the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms which will be released on September 4 at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Istanbul, Turkey, and on September 8 at Highway Africa Conference in Grahamstown, South Africa. 

The development of the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms is a Pan-African initiative to promote human rights standards and principles of openness in internet policy formulation and implementation on the continent.

The Declaration is intended to elaborate on the principles which are necessary to uphold human and people’s rights on the internet, and to cultivate an internet environment that can best meet Africa’s social and economic development needs and goals.

The Declaration builds on well-established African human rights documents including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights of 1981, the Windhoek Declaration on Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press of 1991, the African Charter on Broadcasting of 2001, the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa of 2002, and the African Platform on Access to Information Declaration of 2011.

The idea for an African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms was agreed at the 2013 African Internet Governance Forum in Nairobi, Kenya. A broader meeting was subsequently convened in Johannesburg in February 2014 to commence drafting the Declaration. 

This meeting was attended by participants from the following organisations: Africa Centre for Open Governance, Article 19, Association for Progressive Communications, CIVICUS, Collaboration on Internet ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa, Commission on Human Rights and Good Governance, DotAfrica, Eduardo Mondlane University, Global Partners Digital, The Institute for Social Accountability, Internet Society Ghana, Kenya Human Rights Commission, Kictanet, Media Foundation for West Africa, Media Institute of Southern Africa, Media Rights Agenda, Paradigm Initiative, Protégé QV, South African Human Rights Commission, Support for Information Technology  and Web We Want.

A smaller Drafter’s Group – led by Edetaen Ojo (Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda) – developed the text of the Declaration based on feedback from the wider group, from an online public consultation, and from many eminent individuals and organisations from a range of African and international actors and institutions. 

Our mission is for the Declaration to be widely endorsed by all those with a stake in the internet in Africa and to help shape approaches to internet policy-making and governance across the continent. 

The Declaration will be presented at the African Union Conference of Ministers in charge of Communication and Information Technologies scheduled to take place during the first quarter in 2015.

To find out more please visit the website http://africaninternetrights.org/

 

For enquiries about the Declaration please contact:

Dixie Hawtin, Global Partners Digital at Dixie@gp-digital.org

 

Emilar Vushe, Association for Progressive Communications at Emilar@apc.org