Leveraging the Digital Space to Combat Human Trafficking in DR Congo, Mauritania and The Gambia

By Ashnah Kalemera and Simone Toussi |

The growth in usage of digital technologies in Africa is fuelling technology-enabled human trafficking activities in the region. But these very technologies can be leveraged to fight the vice that is sweeping across the continent..

With support from the Africa Digital Rights Fund (ADRF), the African Legal Think Tank on Women’s Rights (ALTOWR) has studied the role of the…

CIPESA, Small Media Make Stakeholder Submissions to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Digital Rights in South Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe

By Ashnah Kalemera |

The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) together with Small Media last week made joint stakeholder submissions on digital rights in South Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The submissions were made as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism which is an assessment of a country’s human rights under the auspices…

Data Protection in Africa in the Age of Covid-19

By Boel McAteer and Jean-Benoît Falisse |

As the Covid-19 pandemic spread around the world in the early part of 2020, governments and companies invested substantial resources in gathering data about suspected and confirmed cases, and related behaviours. Learning more about how the virus was spreading was a top priority around the world, and with this came new practices of sharing medical records,…

Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa 2021 (FIFAfrica21) Set For September: Propose a Session!

Announcement |

On September 28-30, 2021, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) will host the eighth edition of the annual Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica). The Forum is a landmark event that convenes a wide spectrum of stakeholders from across the internet governance and digital rights arenas to deliberate on gaps, concerns and opportunities…

CIPESA Supports Impactful Digital Rights Media Advocacy in Africa

By Apolo Kakaire |

Civic space continues to shrink across Africa. In recent years, disruptions to the internet and social media applications have emerged as a common trend of digital repression especially in authoritarian countries in Africa. While the Covid-19 pandemic has reaffirmed the immense importance of digital technologies for government and citizen interactions, public services provision, employment, education and commerce, some governments on the continent used…

Digital Taxation Doing More Harm than Good for Access and Rights in Africa

By Evelyn Lirri |

When Uganda introduced a tax on social media use in 2018, the government hoped the new source of revenue would help widen the country’s tax base. Instead, internet subscriptions fell drastically and the government did not raise the anticipated revenue as most users turned to Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to access social media platforms.

Three years later in July 2021, Uganda abandoned…