Access Now is thrilled to announce that the 11th edition of RightsCon will take place entirely online and across every time zone from Monday, June 6 to Friday, June 10, 2022.
Since 2020, the RightsCon community has convened online. Initially a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the online platform and program we have built together has become far more than a substitute space and instead has been an important home for today’s global human rights movement.
From 2,750 registered participants at our last in-person event in Tunis in 2019 to more than 9,200 at our most recent event in 2021, hosting RightsCon online has substantially increased its accessibility and resulted in a more representative program and community. This year we celebrated our 10th anniversary and saw a 20% increase in participation from 2020, doubled the number of participants supported through our Connectivity Fund, and saw women leading the program, making up 59% of session organizers.
We’ve learned a lot – and are continuing to adapt – in this online space. We are excited about the opportunities to build on your feedback and improve the RightsCon platform, program, and experience for the year ahead.
At the same time, we recognize the possibilities present in exploring the new hybrid formats that have emerged. We’re working toward a potential 2023 return to in-person, all while remaining committed to maintaining the vibrant opportunities for online participation that we’ve developed in the last two years.
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The RightsCon team is excited to share our Outcomes Report for the 10th anniversary edition of RightsCon, which took place across all time zones from Monday, June 7 to Friday, June 11, 2021.
RightsCon 2021 was our second summit hosted online, bringing with it opportunities to strengthen our platform for a growing global community. From creating informal spaces for connecting on Social Hour, to showcasing vibrant “after dark” performances and hosting our largest community-built program, this year’s event was both memorable and inspirational.
Our annual Outcomes Report provides insight into the state of human rights in the digital age. The full report details community insights, achievements, survey results, and learnings from the summit. You can explore the highlights below and read the full report for an in-depth look into RightsCon 2021.
For the past 10 years, RightsCon has been a central platform for the human rights and technology community to convene, connect, and coordinate. From the first summit in San Francisco, to the many that followed – in Rio
Here’s a quick round up of news, updates and more, since our 10th anniversary summit. As a reminder, registered participants can still login and revisit hundreds of recorded sessions on the RightsCon platform.
If you're like us, you're missing the discussions, the connections, and the energy from the most recent RightsCon (held from June 7-11, 2021). Since we met two months ago, our team has been compiling success stories, key achievements, and feedback on your experiences for the RightsCon 2021 outcomes report.
There is a lot to cover in this year’s report. We dive into the numbers that shaped RightsCon, learning that – as a sneak peek – 59% of session organizers identified as women and 579 program sessions resulted in an astounding 1,320 hours of content. You can learn more in the full report, available later this month.
Did you catch RightsCon in the news?
Conversations that started at RightsCon made it to the headlines in the weeks following the event, reaching a broader audience globally. This includes discussions on safeguarding digital civic space, how digital rights are key to a post pandemic recovery, and China’s impact on internet governance.
We have seen reporting on Twitter’s Vijaya Gadde’s revelation that the company
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The 10th anniversary edition of RightsCon comes to a close today with a discussion on the opportunities and challenges of our future, featuring Xiaowei Wang, Creative Director, Logic Magazine; Mariam Barghouti, Writer, Researcher and Policy Analyst, Al-Shabaka; and Gbenga Sesan, Executive Director, Paradigm Initiative. You can view it here.
This year’s summit has been record-breaking across the board — with 9,120 participants tuning in from 164 countries for 527 sessions. The program reflected issues that were at the core of RightsCon when it started – privacy and transparency – and topics that are newer, but critical, additions, like disability rights and public health.
In this 10th anniversary edition, our second hosted online, the global RightsCon community has demonstrated its strength, solidarity, and resilience in the face of continuous disruption to our civic spaces. We hope the discussions and connections made have refueled our movement for the work ahead – over the next year and decade.
Over the last five days, we came together to solve problems, build partnerships, and achieve tangible outcomes. Here are just a few highlights of what we’ve accomplished at RightsCon this year:
- For the third consecutive year, nine – the most we’ve ever welcomed – United Nations Special Rapporteurs released a joint statement emphasizing digital rights as a “top priority” to rebuilding civic space in pandemic recovery.
- Between Opening and Closing Ceremonies, 25 new civil society organizations, and over 500 individuals, joined the #BanBS global coalition
Our Executive Director Brett Solomon's welcome message to the community at the Opening Ceremony of RightsCon 2021
I am excited to welcome you to the 10th iteration of RightsCon, especially those who are here for the first time. By the end of Friday, there will have been 23,381 experts, activists and policy makers - you - who have participated over these 10 years. From 400 participants when we first launched in 2011 to 8500 today.
It's not just a question of numbers, it's a question of who - we’ve had activists and anarchists, foreign ministers and CEO’s, High Commissioners and Special Rapporteurs celebrities and the nameless.
We have people participating from almost every country in the world. As may have gathered, we are as interested in empowering the grassroots as we are in holding the powerful accountable. I believe that is one reason why we received over 1000 session proposals from the global community in 2021.
Over the years, we have developed norms like the Toronto Declaration on AI; we have launched movements including #KeepItOn to stop internet shutdowns - in fact the definition language was drafted in a half day multi-stakeholder meeting at RightsCon and has ended up in every UN resolution ever since; we have kick-started campaigns like #WhyID calling for rights-respecting identity systems and #BanBS pushing for the banning of biometric recognition technologies in all publicly accessible spaces.
We have
From June 7-11, 2021, RightsCon will celebrate its 10th anniversary by bringing together more than 8,500 participants from 164 countries.
In 2011, we hosted the first RightsCon (then the Silicon Valley Human Rights Conference) with the recognition that protecting and extending the digital rights of users at risk would require bringing all stakeholders – from tech companies to government representatives to human rights defenders – to the table.
We see our 10th anniversary as an important opportunity to reflect on and communicate about how tech companies participate in and fund civil society spaces. |
The necessity of civil society-owned platforms like RightsCon has been made clearer by the growth and convergence of the issues and communities we welcome. What started as a two-day digital rights event with 400 participants now spans five days and every timezone, convening thousands for a program that encompasses everything touching human rights in the digital age.
This year’s RightsCon program – and those of past years – is packed full of conversations looking closely at how tech companies, their products, and their policies are impacting every aspect of our lives. To achieve change, we believe the companies need to be a part of
Starting tomorrow, June 7, we are welcoming over 8500 participants from 150 countries to engage with our largest program to date in the 10th anniversary edition of RightsCon. Across five days, we will host over 500 sessions that cut across 16 program tracks and 10 intersectional themes from racial justice to disability rights and migration.
Registration ahead of the summit is an important step in our approach to convening safe, productive, and inclusive spaces at RightsCon. If you missed the registration deadline or are not able to participate in the full week of programming, no worries!
There are many options available for you to view recordings of sessions, engage with members of the RightsCon community on socials, share resources, and tap into the momentum of the summit.
The RightsCon platform for our 10th anniversary summit is now open for participants to login, explore, and start building their personalized program schedules ahead of the summit.
The RightsCon platform is the one-stop space for experiencing the entirety of the summit. Ahead of the summit starting, we encourage participants to read our guide and:
- Get set up by bookmarking the platform, building your profile, and setting your timezone;
- Explore the full program, which is navigable by format, track, intersecting theme, or language;
- Add to your personal schedule by marking which sessions you’re interested in attending;
- Make plans to connect with others by checking out the full participant and speaker lists;
- Review our general participation tips to ensure the best possible RightsCon experience.
This year, the RightsCon platform includes exciting new features:
- Add sessions directly to your n
The 10th anniversary of RightsCon is one week away (June 7-11, 2021) and we’re taking a moment to provide an update and reminder of core policies, principles, and processes that help ensure the space is safe, productive, and inclusive.
As with past years, the core principles and policies governing RightsCon, such as our Code of Conduct and our Participation & Privacy Policy, remain in place. By registering, participants agree to read through and abide by these policies.
Registered participants can find information about safety and security directly on the RightsCon platform, including on ways to report, details about our approach, and our ful
In 2020, when we transitioned RightsCon online for the first time, despite the uncertain environment, we were excited about the opportunity to increase representation more than ever before. While our online platform provided means for people to participate and connect across regions (we welcomed 7,681 participants), we also learned from this experience about the tech, language, and literacy barriers it created. During our planning process for the 10th anniversary of RightsCon (June 7-11, 2021), inclusion and accessibility have remained integral areas of focus.
What do we mean when we say inclusion and accessibility? While we often hear these concepts used loosely or interchangeably, we want to be intentional in our wording and transparent in our efforts. When we talk about inclusion, we’re referring to our commitment to ensure people from diverse backgrounds can actively participate, contribute to discussions, and have equitable opportunities in the RightsCon community. Increasing accessibility refers to designing our online spaces centered around the various needs, abilities, and priorities of participants and providing
