Description:
Goal of the session: 1.To highlight the main takeaways from the Parliamentary workshop held with lawmakers from East and Southern Africa in October 2019 and the legislative experience with the Digital Rights and Freedom Bill in Nigeria 2. Map out a strategy for improved engagement with lawmakers in a way that creates an environment of openness, collaboration and discourages a ‘them versus us’ approach For time in memorial, civil society actors have been seen as being defiant in their approach to advocacy on many human rights issues. This has created a ‘Them vs Us’ closed culture which has led to many noble causes being lost because the two parties could not find a meeting point. Similarly, with technological issues, which are exacerbated by the fact that the field is relatively new to many and occurs in a fast-changing manner, lawmakers who are tasked with creating legislation are faced with enormous challenges. Challenges such as the lack of capacity to create new and synergize existing laws that govern digital technologies and respect human rights, keeping in mind that technology involves not just computers but human agents as well. Over the year’s Paradigm Initiative has helped civil society actors across Africa to strengthen their advocacy skills and competencies on digital rights, and in the year 2019, the organization kick-started a series of projects to build lawmakers’ capacity to create human rights-based technology laws. Subsequently, a Coalition of Parliamentarians for Human Rights was born out of the organization's Digital Rights workshops. One aspect that was evident during some of these capacity-building engagements is the lawmakers’ commitment and willingness to protect and ensure the respect of digital rights, however, admitted to lacking the technical knowledge and capacity to enact appropriate laws that also adjust to the fast-paced nature of technology. Additionally, lawmakers lack the appropriate civil society and public sector networks whom they can consult on such issues. The session will host parliamentarians, activists and civil society speakers to discuss their challenges and perspective concerning digital policy formulation and cybersecurity. As well as allow for the sharing of opportunities for improved collaboration between lawmakers and other stakeholders. There has been a notable trend across Africa in passing legislation with little to no consultation with other stakeholders whom these laws will govern and ultimately affect in the long run. It is no secret that laws are made for the people and by the people; however, this has not been the case in East, West and Southern Africa where Paradigm Initiative works to improve the state of digital rights. In Zambia, the government has been criticized for the secrecy in which it created the Cybersecurity Bill of 2017, which up to now has not been availed to the wider public or put forth for public consultation and scrutiny. Similarly, in Tanzania, the Cybercrime Act of 2015 was treated with a similar mystery. In addition, the session seeks to share insights from the legislative experience with the Digital Rights and Freedom Bill in Nigeria and work by the Parliamentary Coalition on Digital Rights for East and Southern Africa. The session also seeks to highlight some of the challenges, opportunities and map out a strategy on how stakeholders can best collaborate with lawmakers to draft cybersecurity and human rights centred ICT legislation and amend existing laws. The proposed speakers will share 5-minute regional snapshots of the status of digital rights legislation, their experiences engaging with lawmakers or the lawmaking process and any other relevant developments. The session will culminate into a participant-led and consultative session, drawing on the knowledge and experience of the experts present in the room. Ultimately, the session will draft a strategy that will be refined and shared with the network to kick start post-conference engagements.
