AfroLeadership, through its President Mr Charlie Martial Ngounou, was among African representatives at RightsCon 2025, held in Taipei, Taiwan, from 24 to 27 February 2025. This event marked the 13th edition of the RightsCon series of summits; a global summit on human rights in the digital age. RightsCon brought together leaders from various sectors, including human rights defenders, technologists, policy makers, journalists and business representatives, to discuss pressing issues at the intersection of human rights and technology. Taiwan was chosen for its free environment and commitment to human rights. The country is renowned for its vibrant civil society community and infrastructure suited to international conferences. Several themes were discussed at this year's event:
– Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies: Exploring the impact of AI on society and human rights;
– Conflict and Humanitarian Action: The role of technology in crisis situations, including armed conflicts and natural disasters;
– Content Governance: Challenges related to online content moderation and freedom of expression;
– Data Protection: Mechanisms to protect personal information in the digital age.
The summit, which took place both face-to-face and online, attracted over 550 sessions, with more than 10,000 participants from 150 countries. The meeting facilitated interaction and access to recorded sessions. The event also served as a framework for launching the first-ever annual report on Internet blackouts, which will highlight violations of rights linked to access to information.
All in all, RightsCon 2025 in Taipei was a unique opportunity for change agents to come together, collaborate and explore innovative solutions to promote and protect human rights in the digital context. This event is an important step towards strengthening networks and initiatives in favour of digital rights on a global scale.
AfroLeadership shared discussions around several topics : Internet Shutdown as a panelist on a session organized by Digital Access and its Coordinator Rigobert Kenmogne, Human centered smart cities as AfroLeadership is hosting the Africa Workgroup of the Cities Coalition for Digital Rights (CC4DR), Child Online Protection during a session led by UNICEF, Human centric data economy with MyData Global, and more around human rights broadly.
By attending the RightsCon 2025 in Taipei, AfroLeadership confirms its position as a leading civil society organisation in Africa, promoting digital rights, Internet rights, AI Ethics, human rights online, child online protection, etc. RightsCon lessons will be shared in upcoming events with various partners.
