The International Justice Clinic (IJC) at the University of California, Irvine School of Law and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights (RFK) will co-host a panel discussion “Advancing strategic litigation on digital rights in Africa: the role of the UN Human Rights Mechanisms,” at 4:15pm – 5:45pm (CAT) / 10:15am – 11:45am (EDT) / 7:15 – 8:45 (PDT) on September 29, 2022 (Thursday), in the ninth edition of Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica22), which promotes effective and inclusive ICT policy in Africa.
In 2021, IJC launched the Treaty Body Litigation Initiative, partnering in its implementation with the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL), to bring or support individual claims before the key monitoring bodies of the UN system, to seek meaningful redress for victims of digital rights violations, and advocate for a rights-respecting jurisprudence touching on some of the most important issues of human rights in the digital age (you can find our foundational report here).
Despite the significance of the treaty body system, civil society organizations have not devoted a broad and sustained effort to help shape its jurisprudence with an eye to reinforcing the past decade of innovations in digital rights by the UN’s political bodies. NGOs around the complex UN human rights system have focused, with good reason, on advocacy before bodies such as the Human Rights Council and its Special Procedures and Universal Periodic Review, to great benefit for digital rights. Others have focused on the regional systems, using the progressive stands taken by UN actors to formulate, negotiate and advocate for new or strengthened norms within the European, African and Inter-American systems.
The clinic in collaboration with Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights is now bringing together experienced practitioners and key stakeholders for a conversation and to facilitate an experience-sharing platform in the area.
Speakers include:
Dunia Mekonnen Tegegn, 2021 – 2022 Penn Kemble Fellow NED, Human Rights Consultant, Center for Human Rights, The American Bar Association;
Pete Weatherby KC, Erickson Mooneapillay, and Sanjeev Teeluckdharry, who led a case before the UN Human Rights Committee over Mauritius biometric ID system (in 2019, U.N. Human Rights Committee found a violation of privacy);
Elizabeth Atori and Brian Kiira from Initiative for Social and Economic Rights, who are co-leading a case in the Ugandan High Court over the Ugandan biometric ID system;
Kuda Hove, who previously led Digital Rights work at the Media Institute of Southern Africa, Privacy International, and Consumers International; and
Mojirayo Ogunlana-Nkanga, Principal Partner of MON Legal, who co-led a case in the ECOWAS court over the Nigeria Twitter ban (in 2022, the ECOWAS court found a violation of freedom of expression).
As a related session, RFK, jointly with The Unwanted Witness and IJC, is hosting “Protecting Digital Rights through Strategic Litigation. What’s Next?” on September 29, 2022 at 2:30pm – 4:00 (CAT); 8:30am – 10am (EDT); and 5:30am – 7am (PDT). You can find details here.
We would be honored by your presence and invite you to register to join our discussion through the link below. The sessions will be broadcast in English.
We look forward to seeing you on September 29.
REGISTER for FIFA Africa 2022 (You can join the session on their platform).