About the session:Human rights defenders and pro-democracy actors are increasingly the only counterbalances to a global trend of populist politics, polarised societies, adverse state cyber activities and profit-maximising algorithms.
At the same time, the issues at hand have never been more challenging: challenges to online democratic space now exist across the technological, political, economic and social spectra, while resources remain limited. New duty bearers and influential actors, including in the private sector, must be brought into a rights-based global discourse. Some existing institutions, previously lacking sufficient knowledge and interest in online issues, are starting to wield their influence, but remain disconnected from the many years of rights-based discussion on these issues.
This session will build on previous panels and be forward-looking. It will:
- Discuss priorities, methods and avenues for maximum impact to protect and expand the online democratic space
- Identify solutions, concrete tools, platforms and strategies for improving online democratic space in a dynamic, conflicting and increasingly hostile global political environment;
- It identifies solutions, discuss tensions rights-holders/duty-bearers, and how traditional and new mechanisms are equipped for dealing with online challenges.
Questions that the panel will discuss:- What are the counter-strategies? Who is defending the space and how? Best practice, lessons learned and inspiring examples?
- What does accountability look like in a digital age? Has international, regional and national systems and mechanisms kept pace with the fast development on the internet and the intersection of human rights violations online and offline?
- How can stakeholders - UN, development cooperation, companies, civil society - work together to increase impact? What roles can these stakeholders play to defend the democratic space?