Human Rights Day 2020: ‘Recover Better’ in Physical and Digital Spaces

This December 10, the United Nations commemorated Human Rights Day with the theme, “Recover Better – Stand Up for Human Rights.” The theme this year ensures that human rights are at the centre of the world’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. These human rights extend beyond the physical and into the digital space, as stated by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2012 and 2019.

To add to the conversation on human and digital rights, allow us to share additional resources on digital rights that were published this year.

Digital Rights Reports from APC

Gaya Khandhadai, Asia policy regional coordinator with the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), has curated the following 2020 digital rights reports on the Asia-Pacific:

  1. Dialling in the Law: A comparative assessment of jurisprudence on internet shutdowns is a report that outlines jurisprudence across the global South on the legality of internet shutdowns. It addresses the growing challenge of
    government-mandated disruptions of internet access around the world, often under the guise of safeguarding public order and upholding national security interests.
  2. Unshackling Expression 2020 is a continuation of the 2017 APC report which studied laws criminalising expression online in Asia. Here are the latest reports:
    1. Philippines: “Unshackling Expression: The Philippines Report“, published on September 30, 2020
    2. Indonesia: “Unshackling Expression: A study on online freedom of expression in Indonesia“, published on November 19, 2020
    3. Nepal: “Unshackling Expression: A study on criminalisation of freedom of expression online in Nepal“, published on November 25, 2020

The above reports are supported by APC through the CYRILLA initiative.

‘What are digital rights?’ now in Thai and Indonesian

Earlier this year, EngageMedia Digital Rights Program Manager Kathleen Azali wrote a blog post exploring the definitions of digital rights according to members of the Coconet community and other regional and international charters.

Aside from the English version, this article is now also available in Thai and Indonesian. The Thai version was translated by volunteer Ben Muangwong, while the Indonesian version was translated by EngageMedia.

If you are interested to translate this article in another language, please reach out via the Contact page.

The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the Coconet community, EngageMedia, APC, or their funders. Copyright of the article is held by the author(s) of each article. Check out our Contribution Guidelines for more information. Want to translate this piece to a different language? Contact us via this form. This publication is licensed with Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International.