The Call for Proposals for RightsCon 2026 is now open!
August 1, 2025 • Event info • 6 min read
The Call for Proposals for RightsCon 2026 is now open!
August 1, 2025 • Event info • 6 min read
Sarah Abraham
Senior Coordinator, Program Operations & Communications
Luis Marquez Garrido
Senior Coordinator, Program Building & Engagement
The Call for Proposals for RightsCon 2026 in Lusaka, Zambia and online (May 5-8, 2026) is now open, which means it’s time to start drafting your session proposals! The deadline for submission is September 12, 2025.
RightsCon is proud to host a community-driven program. Through our Call for Proposals we work to keep the summit relevant, grounded in the work of the communities we serve, and diverse in perspectives. As the stakes continue to rise globally for activists, policymakers, journalists, and technologists working at the intersection of human rights and technology, hosting a session at RightsCon is an opportunity to join forces with like-minded people and help shape the future of digital rights.
Before you get started on your proposal, be sure to review our Guide to a Successful Proposal! This year, each individual can submit up to two proposals, but as always, we recommend focusing your energy on crafting one strong, compelling submission.
Striking the right balance: Adapting the program for responsiveness and clarity
Since our first summit in 2011, the RightsCon program has grown in scale and scope, reflecting the evolving priorities of the digital rights community. But, we’ve also heard your feedback: a larger program can sometimes feel overwhelming and hard for participants to navigate.
In response, we hosted a smaller program at RightsCon 2025 to make it easier for participants to identify and engage with sessions that are most relevant to their work. Building on this approach, we’ve made further structural adjustments for RightsCon 2026, including a reduction in the number of online sessions, with a focus on the most interactive and engaging formats for online participants. As a result, the number of online session formats has been reduced from six to four. Dialogues, roundtables, workshops, and private meetings will be available both in-person and online. Lightning talks and tech demos will be hosted exclusively in-person at our venue in Lusaka.
Our goal for RightsCon 2026 is to strike a balance between a clear, familiar structure and the flexibility to respond to a rapidly changing digital landscape. At a time when the digital rights sector is facing unprecedented pressure and uncertainty, from political volatility to disruptive emerging technologies, we want to ensure that the program is able to address urgent, time-sensitive issues, while maintaining a stable foundation for participants to prepare and engage meaningfully.
In line with our mission to bring communities together to drive real change, RightsCon 2026 will also include more curated spaces designed to respond to real-time challenges. These spaces will offer new opportunities for stakeholders to collaborate, strategize, and take action on fast-moving developments.
Our hybrid approach
We recognize that the digital rights ecosystem is facing multiple crises and that many within our community, especially civil society organizations, may still be uncertain about how they will participate. To ensure RightsCon remains accessible and inclusive, we’re continuing with our hybrid model, allowing participants to join us in the way that works best for them.
RightsCon 2026, our third hybrid edition, will offer a mix of in-person, online, and limited hybrid programming. As always, hybrid programming will occur during in-person summit hours (9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. local time), and online sessions available across timezones.
Program infrastructure grounded in community feedback
Our redesigned program timeline
The Call for Proposals is open from August 1, 2025 to September 12, 2025.
For RightsCon 2025, based on community feedback, we redesigned the program timeline to give session organizers more time to plan, particularly securing travel and funding arrangements after receiving their proposal status decision. Most session organizers who responded to our post-summit survey felt this timeline struck the right balance, so we’re committed to continuing it for RightsCon 2026. If you submit a proposal, you can expect to receive a decision by late December 2025, five months before the summit. Recognizing the evolving contexts we’re all operating in, organizers of accepted sessions will be able to update their session details until mid-February 2026.
RightsCon Proposal Training
Last year, we expanded our training series to offer extra support to session proposers and we’re excited to bring this back for 2026! We’ll guide you through the ins-and-outs of our proposal platform, explain our review process and selection criteria, and share best practices and tips for building successful proposals. Unable to attend a workshop? You can also catch us at our regular office hours where we’ll be answering all your questions. Sign up on our Guide page!
Speaker & Facilitator List
We’re bringing back the Speaker & Facilitator List – a resource we launched last year to provide session organizers with a repository of potential speakers and facilitators. This tool is intended to help organizers secure their speaker and facilitator lineups and offer participants an additional avenue to engage in the RightsCon program. An overwhelming 98% of session organizers who responded to our survey indicated that they would like to see this resource at future iterations of RightsCon, so the Speaker & Facilitator List is here to stay! Nominations for the list will open in mid-October.
Program Categories
The Call for Proposals is a dynamic reflection of the state of digital rights. Submissions for our last summit brought to the forefront critical and timely conversations about elections and information integrity, the digitalization of warfare, and other pressing themes for our community. For RightsCon 2026, session proposers can choose from 18 program categories. These categories, listed below, provide structure to our review process and inform the creation of thematic tracks that participants will use to navigate the summit agenda.
During the review and selection process, our team, along with the Program Committee — a panel of experts from around the world — will take a holistic view within and across categories to ensure program content is diverse, relevant, and representative of the RightsCon community.
- Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies
- Business and Human Rights
- Conflict and Humanitarian Action
- Content Governance
- Data Protection
- Digital Security for Communities
- Futures, Fictions, and Creativity
- Freedom of the Media
- Freedoms and Agency in the Age of Surveillance
- Global Cyber Norms and Encryption
- Governance, Politics, and Elections
- Human Rights-Centered Design
- Internet Access and Inclusion
- Internet Shutdowns and Disruptions
- Justice, Litigation, and Documentation
- Online Hate and Violence
- Organizational Capacity and Funding
- Tactics and Contexts for Activists
We welcome proposals in any of these categories that also showcase technology’s intersection with gender, disability status, environmental sustainability, indigenous, or youth and children’s rights.
On the horizon
If you submit a proposal by the deadline, we’ll be in touch with you throughout our review process and notify you of your proposal’s status in late December. Organizers of accepted sessions will receive resources, training, and orientation opportunities in the lead up to the summit. Additionally, applications to our Community Support Fund will be open in September! If you haven’t already, we suggest signing up for our newsletter, the RightsCon Rundown, to make sure you receive all event details and updates.
We can’t wait to see your session ideas for RightsCon 2026!
Read the latest from RightsCon
The Call for Proposals for RightsCon 2026 in Lusaka, Zambia and online (May 5-8, 2026) is now open, which means it’s time to start drafting your session proposals! The deadline for submission is September 12, 2025.
RightsCon is proud to host a community-driven program. Through our Call for Proposals we work to keep the summit relevant, grounded in the work of the communities we serve, and diverse in perspectives. As the stakes continue to rise globally for activists, policymakers, journalists, and technologists working at the intersection of human rights and technology, hosting a session at RightsCon is an opportunity to join forces with like-minded people and help shape the future of digital rights.
Before you get started on your proposal, be sure to review our Guide to a Successful Proposal! This year, each individual can submit up to two proposals, but as always, we recommend focusing your energy on crafting one strong, compelling submission.
Striking the right balance: Adapting the program for responsiveness and clarity
Since our first summit in 2011, the RightsCon program has grown in scale and scope, reflecting the evolving priorities of the digital rights community. But, we’ve also heard your feedback: a larger program can sometimes feel overwhelming and hard for participants to navigate.
In response, we hosted a smaller program at RightsCon 2025 to make it easier for participants to identify and engage with sessions that are most relevant to their work. Building on this approach, we’ve made further structural adjustments for RightsCon 2026, including a reduction in the number of online sessions, with a focus on the most interactive and engaging formats for online participants. As a result, the number of online session formats has been reduced from six to four. Dialogues, roundtables, workshops, and private meetings will be available both in-person and online. Lightning talks and tech demos will be hosted exclusively in-person at our venue in Lusaka.
Our goal for RightsCon 2026 is to strike a balance between a clear, familiar structure and the flexibility to respond to a rapidly changing digital landscape. At a time when the digital rights sector is facing unprecedented pressure and uncertainty, from political volatility to disruptive emerging technologies, we want to ensure that the program is able to address urgent, time-sensitive issues, while maintaining a stable foundation for participants to prepare and engage meaningfully.
In line with our mission to bring communities together to drive real change, RightsCon 2026 will also include more curated spaces designed to respond to real-time challenges. These spaces will offer new opportunities for stakeholders to collaborate, strategize, and take action on fast-moving developments.
Our hybrid approach
We recognize that the digital rights ecosystem is facing multiple crises and that many within our community, especially civil society organizations, may still be uncertain about how they will participate. To ensure RightsCon remains accessible and inclusive, we’re continuing with our hybrid model, allowing participants to join us in the way that works best for them.
RightsCon 2026, our third hybrid edition, will offer a mix of in-person, online, and limited hybrid programming. As always, hybrid programming will occur during in-person summit hours (9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. local time), and online sessions available across timezones.
Program infrastructure grounded in community feedback
Our redesigned program timeline
The Call for Proposals is open from August 1, 2025 to September 12, 2025.
For RightsCon 2025, based on community feedback, we redesigned the program timeline to give session organizers more time to plan, particularly securing travel and funding arrangements after receiving their proposal status decision. Most session organizers who responded to our post-summit survey felt this timeline struck the right balance, so we’re committed to continuing it for RightsCon 2026. If you submit a proposal, you can expect to receive a decision by late December 2025, five months before the summit. Recognizing the evolving contexts we’re all operating in, organizers of accepted sessions will be able to update their session details until mid-February 2026.
RightsCon Proposal Training
Last year, we expanded our training series to offer extra support to session proposers and we’re excited to bring this back for 2026! We’ll guide you through the ins-and-outs of our proposal platform, explain our review process and selection criteria, and share best practices and tips for building successful proposals. Unable to attend a workshop? You can also catch us at our regular office hours where we’ll be answering all your questions. Sign up on our Guide page!
Speaker & Facilitator List
We’re bringing back the Speaker & Facilitator List – a resource we launched last year to provide session organizers with a repository of potential speakers and facilitators. This tool is intended to help organizers secure their speaker and facilitator lineups and offer participants an additional avenue to engage in the RightsCon program. An overwhelming 98% of session organizers who responded to our survey indicated that they would like to see this resource at future iterations of RightsCon, so the Speaker & Facilitator List is here to stay! Nominations for the list will open in mid-October.
Program Categories
The Call for Proposals is a dynamic reflection of the state of digital rights. Submissions for our last summit brought to the forefront critical and timely conversations about elections and information integrity, the digitalization of warfare, and other pressing themes for our community. For RightsCon 2026, session proposers can choose from 18 program categories. These categories, listed below, provide structure to our review process and inform the creation of thematic tracks that participants will use to navigate the summit agenda.
During the review and selection process, our team, along with the Program Committee — a panel of experts from around the world — will take a holistic view within and across categories to ensure program content is diverse, relevant, and representative of the RightsCon community.
- Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies
- Business and Human Rights
- Conflict and Humanitarian Action
- Content Governance
- Data Protection
- Digital Security for Communities
- Futures, Fictions, and Creativity
- Freedom of the Media
- Freedoms and Agency in the Age of Surveillance
- Global Cyber Norms and Encryption
- Governance, Politics, and Elections
- Human Rights-Centered Design
- Internet Access and Inclusion
- Internet Shutdowns and Disruptions
- Justice, Litigation, and Documentation
- Online Hate and Violence
- Organizational Capacity and Funding
- Tactics and Contexts for Activists
We welcome proposals in any of these categories that also showcase technology’s intersection with gender, disability status, environmental sustainability, indigenous, or youth and children’s rights.
On the horizon
If you submit a proposal by the deadline, we’ll be in touch with you throughout our review process and notify you of your proposal’s status in late December. Organizers of accepted sessions will receive resources, training, and orientation opportunities in the lead up to the summit. Additionally, applications to our Community Support Fund will be open in September! If you haven’t already, we suggest signing up for our newsletter, the RightsCon Rundown, to make sure you receive all event details and updates.
We can’t wait to see your session ideas for RightsCon 2026!