Sharing an update on the location and dates for RightsCon 2025

Today, we are sharing an important update about the location of the next RightsCon. The 13th edition of our Summit Series will now take place in Taipei, Taiwan, and online from Monday, February 24 to Thursday, February 27, 2025.

As a leading democracy in the region, Taiwan is recognized globally for the freest online environment and greatest human freedom in Asia, a whole-of-society approach to human rights, and a vibrant civil society community. As the routine location of large-scale international events, including g0v summit, the Asia Pacific Regional IGF, and the Oslo Freedom Forum, coupled with the rapidly growing presence of international NGOs and global tech companies, we believe Taiwan is the best fit for convening our community in 2025.

We see today’s announcement as an exciting development in what has been a multi-year commitment to bringing RightsCon to East Asia for the first time, and back to the Asia Pacific region after a decade. With its rapidly accelerating digital transformation, the growth of its tech sector, its role as a global hub for innovation, and its diverse human rights communities, the Asia Pacific region has been, and continues to be, a natural choice for the next RightsCon.

While we had previously communicated our intention to bring RightsCon to South Korea, and aimed to make as informed a decision as possible before announcing, the context in which we were planning evolved and required a reassessment. We’re grateful to our partners across government, civil society, and the private sector in South Korea, Taiwan, the Asia Pacific region, and beyond who have provided support and guidance throughout the decision-making process.

How we came to this decision

RightsCon is a trusted space for leaders from different sectors to come together and build a rights-respecting digital future. At its core, our mission is to ensure that underrepresented communities can participate meaningfully in global convening spaces where policies are formed and decisions are made. Our location selection process centers this mission by weighing several criteria in our decision-making, including the accessibility of the visa process, conference infrastructure, and local relationships.

While we must weigh these sometimes competing factors when selecting where to host an event at the size and scale of RightsCon, it is our responsibility, as the organizers of the summit, to prioritize locations where the burden on participants requiring visas is reduced. After careful consideration, including an evolving assessment and continuous consultations with our community, we concluded that Taiwan, with an established eVisa process for international conference participants, would allow us to facilitate greater access to our summit, a commitment we highlighted last year.

Planning your participation

We recognize that a location change impacts planning and as such, we will continue to provide regular updates to inform your participation over the next nine months leading up to RightsCon 2025. You can expect to hear from us soon about the visa process for Taiwan, traveling to Taipei, where to stay, informing your safe and secure participation, and more. If you’ve already submitted a session proposal, we’ll be in touch in case you want or need to make any changes based on this update. If not, remember the deadline for submitting a proposal is June 2, 2024!

We are maintaining our current timeline for next year’s hybrid RightsCon, and will continue to be available, as always, for your ideas, questions, and concerns. Reach out to us at any time by sending an email to [email protected].

As for RightsCon 2026, we are still planning to bring the event to Africa, and we will continue to incorporate learnings and insights from the wider community in shaping our location selection process.

We look forward to welcoming you to Taipei and online next February 24-27, 2025!