RightsCon offers three session modes: in-person, online, and hybrid. You can choose the mode that best fits your session, but please note that your selection is final once you submit the proposal form.

In-person sessions will take place at our venue in Lusaka, Zambia, at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre (MICC). All six session formats are available for in-person sessions.

Online sessions will run entirely on our custom Summit Platform and are supported by four formats. To better balance our program scope and prioritize engaging, participant experiences, we’ve decided to reduce the number of online sessions for RightsCon 2026. As a result, Lightning Talks and Tech Demos will be offered in-person only.

Hybrid sessions are available for Roundtables and Private Meetings only. A select number will be elevated to enable two-way interaction between in-person and online participants. If you’re proposing a session in one of these formats and would like to be considered for hybrid delivery, we encourage you to explain why engaging both audiences is essential to your session goals. Please note that unlike fully online sessions, hybrid sessions will only be scheduled between 9:00 a.m and 5:00 p.m Lusaka time, which may not be ideal for all time zones.

For more details on our programming structure and the changes we’re introducing this cycle, check out our Call for Proposals launch blog.

RightsCon’s program is sourced through an open Call for Proposals. You can choose from a number of formats and submit up to 2 proposals per proposer for consideration. The Call for Proposals is now open and closes on  September 12, 2025.

RightsCon’s global platform can raise the profile of your work and provide direct access to thousands of participants around the world with the power and expertise to take your ideas to the next level. RightsCon equips session organizers with the space and tools to build skills, networks, and strategies for action. 

You’ll receive resources, support and training at every stage of the program-building cycle, including proposal writing trainings, resources on session design and production, ticket discount codes to share with the members of your session, tailored facilitation training for in-person, online, and hybrid environments, and orientation sessions before the summit to help you prepare and network with other organizers.

The program is broad in scope and supports many topics of continued importance for our community, including, artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, Content Governance, Online Hate and Violence, Internet Access and Inclusion, Business and Human Rights, and Tactics and Contexts for Activists.

We also look for new issues to prompt exploration. Recent summits introduced program tracks on art and activism, human rights-centered design, and humanitarian action, and intersecting themes on health, environmental sustainability, disability rights, and gender justice.

Access Now works with a Program Committee to review the Call for Proposals. Every year, we invite academics, technologists, creators, activists, business leaders and policymakers from around the world to chair the Program Committee and help us select proposals based on our core evaluation criteria (relevant, actionable, original, diverse, and participatory). We also look holistically across categories and take other factors into account, such as gender and region, in order to create the strongest and most inclusive program possible.

RightsCon positions our community to secure commitments, develop resources and campaigns, and set standards for human rights. Our summit has launched government initiatives, such as Tech for Democracy and the Technologist Code of Ethics, prompted statements from UN experts, produced coalitions to fight internet shutdowns, oppose the extensive surveillance of migrants in Latin America, and to prevent the misuse of digital identity systems, and established principles for non-discrimination in AI and the online sale of medicines.

Learn more about RightsCon’s impact in our most recent Outcomes Report.

Unfortunately, we are not able to accept session proposals after the deadline has passed. However, participants play an important role in the RightsCon program, and many of our formats place an emphasis on interaction and collaboration as the means to achieve outcomes.

The summit supports industry leaders, advocates, technologists, policymakers, investors, funders, creatives, and journalists from around the world – and your contributions are part of what makes RightsCon unique. That’s why we need you in the room, whether as a session organizer, speaker, facilitator, or participant.

To hear about other opportunities to participate in the program, please stay tuned and subscribe to the RightsCon rundown to receive information on our Expanded Programming and individual speaker offerings.

RightsCon offers a Community Support Fund, available to those who wish to attend RightsCon in-person or online. The fund offers travel support for in-person participation(including travel, accommodation, among other travel-related costs).

While the fund is open to everyone, we prioritize applications from session organizers, facilitators, and speakers from communities who are traditionally underrepresented in global convenings. However as a nonprofit organization with limited resources, we are unfortunately unable to guarantee funding to every applicant.

Applications to the Fund will be open in September and will be available through the RightsCon Proposal Portal.