10Nov
Today is the official launch of the Call for Proposals for our 11th summit (June 6-10, 2022)! Ready to start your RightsCon journey? You have until January 13, 2022 to submit your session proposal and help shape the agenda for human rights in the digital age.
3Nov
8Sep
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. readmore
31Aug
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.
12Aug
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.
11Jun
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:
7Jun
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
6Jun
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
6Jun
1Jun
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:
This year, the RightsCon platform includes exciting new features:
