19Jul
Introducing the Speaker & Facilitator List for RightsCon 2025
► Why are we introducing the Speaker & Facilitator List?
► How it works for Speakers & Facilitators
► How it works for Session Organizers
► Important guidelines
► Upcoming program timeline
This year, we are excited to introduce a new initiative, the Speaker & Facilitator List, for RightsCon 2025 (Taipei and online, Feb 24-27), with the aim of decentralizing the matchmaking process among session organizers and session contributors. If you have a thematic or regional perspective you would like to contribute to our program, consider nominating yourself now as a speaker or facilitator by August 16th.
20Jun
Our approach to community support for RightsCon 2025
► Community support over the years
► Strengthening our model of community support
► Our timeline for important dates
Today, we are launching applications for travel support, as part of our Community Support Fund initiative for RightsCon 2025, taking place in Taipei and online from February 24-27, 2025. As part of the launch, we’re sharing more information about our approach and timeline for the Fund, as well as outlining the changes that we’re incorporating this year based on the valuable feedback from our community.
Community support over the years
As our community grows, we have been continually learning, evaluating, and refining our support initiatives. Before the COVID-19 pandemic when RightsCon used to be an exclusively in-person summit, we provided funding for flights and accommodation to a select number of participants to enable their participation at the summit. In years where RightsCon was held fully online (2020, 2021, and 2022), we pivoted to providing direct financial support for additional bandwidth, increased connectivity, translation, and other services through our Con
10Apr
The RightsCon 2025 Call for Proposals is now open!
► Read our guide
► What's new?
► Program priorities
► Modes and formats
► Coming up next
The journey to next year's RightsCon (February 2025) officially kicks off today with the launch of the Call for Proposals! Do you have a session idea at the intersection of human rights and technology? Submit a proposal now until June 7, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. Organizing a session at RightsCon offers a platform to showcase your work on a global stage, build coalitions and strategies, learn from fellow thought leaders, and shape policy agendas. You will be joining a network of business leaders, government representatives, technologists, academics, journalists, and human rights activists – the RightsCon community – who mee
7Mar
Get planning! RightsCon 2025 Timeline
We’re under one year out from RightsCon 2025 (February 2025) and while our planning is well underway, we’re sharing a preview of our event timeline – from the launch of the Call for Proposals to travel support, registration and, more – so you can start getting ready to join us. You can expect our announcement on the exact dates and venue of RightsCon 2025 by early May! While our timeline for RightsCon 2025 shifted due to our transition from hosting annually in June to hosting in February, it’s also been informed by extensive research and consultation with our community and partners. Our goal was to build an event timeline that offers ample time and opportunity for participants to plan out their engagement and travel. A few key changes in line with this goal include:
- Notifying session proposers of the status of their proposal 6 months before the event (previously 3 months);
- Notifying travel support applicants of the status of their funding 5 months before the event (previously 2 months);
- Sharing information about visas and launching our visa support process 8 months before the event (previously 4 months).
RightsCon 2025 timeline
Th
28Feb
Report Back on RightsCon Community Calls: Community Input into Location Selection for RightsCon 2026
► Purpose of the calls
► Insights from the community on our current location selection process
► Getting the community involved in the process
► What’s next?
We are excited to share the last installment of report backs from our community consultation calls! (Read more about our report backs on community support, the RightsCon program, mitigating barriers to travel, and participant experience.) This report provides a summary of discussions focused on community input into location selection for RightsCon 2026. We are deeply grateful to everyone who participated, and shared their expertise and thoughtful feedback.
Purpose of the calls
On
14Feb
Report Back on RightsCon Community Calls: Rethinking Participant Experience
► Purpose of the calls
► Insights from the community
► What’s next?
Welcome to the fourth installment of report-backs from our community consultation calls! This report provides a summary of discussions centered around a crucial element of our summit: the participant experience. We extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who participated, shared their experiences, expertise, and thoughtful feedback.
Purpose of the calls
On November 14 and 16, 2023, we hosted two consultation calls to reflect on and improve the RightsCon experience for both online and in-person participants. We welcomed a diverse mix of RightsCon newcomers and veterans during the calls, and invited them to share their participation highlights, challenges faced, and suggestions to enhance their experience.
Insights from the community
The feedback we received was both humbling and motivating. There was an overwhelming sentiment that RightsCon is a community-led event, acting as the connective tissue between diverse stakeholders, and a place where one can meet and learn f
19Jan
Report Back on RightsCon Community Calls: Mitigating Barriers to Travel
► Purpose of the calls
► Anticipating challenges
► Insights from the community
► What’s next?
We are excited to share the third installment of report backs from our community consultation calls! (Read more about our report backs on community support and the RightsCon program) This report provides a summary of discussions focused on mitigating barriers to travel to RightsCon. We are deeply grateful to members of the RightsCon community who generously shared their experiences and insights to inform our planning for RightsCon South Korea.
Purpose of the calls
In the open letter we published in August 2023, we reflected on our responsibility as event organizers to anticipate and work to mitigate the barri
14Dec
Report Back on RightsCon Community Calls: Rethinking the RightsCon Program
► Purpose of the calls
► Insights from the community
► Restructuring the Call For Proposals process and timeline
► What’s next?
We’re back to share the second installment of report backs from our community consultation calls! This report provides a summary of the discussions focused on the Call for Proposals, the program timeline, session modes, structure, and size. A huge thank you to the members of our community who took time out of their busy schedules to engage with us on our mission to build a better RightsCon.
Purpose of the calls
Between October 17 and November 9, we hosted a series of six consultation calls with session organizers. We collectively assessed elements of the RightsCon program design, such as the Call for Proposals timeline, decision-making procedures, program structure and size, and the execution of session formats. The calls were organized based on session modes (hybrid, online, and i
22Nov
Report Back on RightsCon Community Calls: Community Support
► Purpose of the calls
► Our existing community support model
► Insights from the community
► What’s next?
Today we are excited to share the first in a series of upcoming reports from our community consultation calls, as part of our commitment to increasing transparency and incorporating community input into the redesign of RightsCon’s core elements. This initial report provides a summary of the discussions focused on community support. We are grateful to the members of the community who took time out of their day to join the calls and share their insights with us.
Purpose of the calls
On October 24 and 25, we hosted two community consultation calls with the goal of evaluating our current community support model, and gathering valuable feedback on how to refine our support mechanisms to better meet the needs of our growing community.
31Aug
An open letter to the RightsCon community about RightsCon Costa Rica and what comes next
► What happened and how it impacted the RightsCon community
► Our role and responsibility as convenors
► Where we are now and where we’re headed
► What comes next: sharing our plans and hearing from you
From June 5-8, 2023, we hosted the 12th iteration of RightsCon in San José, Costa Rica, where over 8,300 participants joined us for more than 600 sessions in-person and online. RightsCon Costa Rica was our first hybrid event and a much anticipated return in-person after three years of online-only convening. While we would usually follow RightsCon by reporting on the outcomes of our time together and launching our save-the-date for next year, our team and Access Now as a whole have instead taken a moment to pause and reflect. We’re writing to you to explain the challenges and exclusion some participants faced, to apologize and take accountability for our role, and to share some thoughts on the road ahead for RightsCon.
What happened and how it impacted the RightsCon community
We believe it is important for all of us to understand the systemic barriers and harms that participants can