Celebrating 11 years of RightsCon: 10 highlights from the 2022 Outcomes Report

Access Now is excited to share our Outcomes Report for the 11th edition of RightsCon, which took place across all time zones from Monday, June 6 to Friday, June 10, 2022.

RightsCon 2022 marked our third summit hosted entirely online, and our largest and most diverse event to date. This was made possible by our continued focus on multi-stakeholder participation and accessibility, an expansion and diversification of the community-driven RightsCon program, and our continued experimentation with new formats and spaces, including the RightsCon Studio and Social Hour.

Our annual Outcomes Report provides insight into the state of human rights in the digital age and the global community discussing, coordinating, and solving today’s pressing challenges. See the highlights below and read the full report for a deep dive into RightsCon 2022.

1. The RightsCon community has grown over threefold, from 2,797 registered participants in 2019 to 9,352 in 2022
2. We hosted sessions in 13 languages at the summit, including Arabic, Burmese, Dari, French, Malay, and Portuguese
3. United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Samantha Power launched an initiative to develop a technologist code of ethics
4. A total of 483 companies were represented this year, with growth in the number of creatives, investors, and media representatives
5. The newly launched RightsCon Studio hosted prominent voices including Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand and the first head of government to address the summit
6. This year’s summit hosted six key areas of conversation and action that cut across the program, including digital authoritarianism and transnational repression.
7. The African region has seen the most increase in representation over the last three years
8. The week of RightsCon saw more than 12 official launches and statements
9. 97% of surveyed session organizers told us they would run a session with RightsCon again
10. The Connectivity Fund supported 164 session organizers and participants, and saw a 50% increase in applications as compared to 2021

Mark your calendars and save the date for our first hybrid event, taking place in Costa Rica and online worldwide from June 5-9, 2023.