International Youth Day: Equality Now urges upholding of digital rights

Equality Now, an international human rights organization, and co-founder of the Alliance for Universal Digital Rights (AUDRi), works to achieve legal and systemic change for women and girls worldwide. Equality Now yesterday joined the world in commemorating  International Youth Day   under the Theme ‘From Clicks to Progress: Youth Digital Pathways for Sustainable Development.’

International Youth Day is commemorated every year on 12 August to bring youth issues to the attention of the international community and celebrate the potential of youth as partners in today’s global society. The Day gives an opportunity to celebrate and mainstream young peoples’ voices, actions, and initiatives, as well as their meaningful, universal, and equitable engagement. The UN General Assembly (UNGA) established the Day on 17 December 1999, after it endorsed the recommendation made by the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth calling for 12 August to be declared International Youth Day.

In Commemoration, Equality Now and AUDRi, this year, as part of the  6th Southern Africa Youth Forum under the theme: Empowering the Future: Innovative Education for Sustainable Development in Southern Africa!, convened a commemoration event with young people from Southern Africa focusing on youths and digital rights.

The event aimed to highlight and discuss the opportunities and challenges presented by digital technologies and networks to children and young people in the Southern Africa region using a gendered lens.

It also provided information on ongoing regional and international processes on digital cooperation and the promotion of human rights online. It provided strategies on the role of young people; and aimed to come up with recommendations for SADC member states and other actors that will support the promotion of the rights of children and young people in the digital space.

Tsitsi Matekaire, Equality Now’s Global Lead for Ending Sexual Exploitation highlighted Equality Now’s campaigns advocating for governments to promote and achieve universal digital rights and end online sexual exploitation and abuse. She informed participants about the UN Global Digital Compact and the need to ensure that young people are at the center of advocacy for its implementation.

Hon. Neeema Lugangira, who is a member of parliament in Tanzania and the Chair of the African ParliamentaryNetwork on Internet Governance spoke about her experiences with online gender-based violence as a female politician and highlighted limited internet governance as a challenge in addressing tech-facilitated gender-based violence. Although many African countries are coming up with cybercrimes and cybersecurity laws they are not fully addressing online gender-based violence. Africa’s laws are lagging behind.  She called on young people to actively engage their MPs on these issues as many young people are affected, and inform them of the legal measures that would address this issue.

Aurra Kawanzaruwa from AfriDigital spoke about her work in engaging young people, Generation Alpha, in the digital space highlighting the need to be cognisant of issues relating to the language and ways of communicating online and the culture of digital spaces. She shared stats showing that in Africa young people are mainly connecting to the digital space through social media platforms with Facebook, WhatsApp, and TikTok being the main ones. On the issue of online violence, she pointed out that digital empathy, which involves engaging online responsibly, can be one of the strategies to reduce online gender-based violence. Digital empathy means a potential perpetrator can step back and assess if their actions can cause harm to others.

Caleb Masusu from Restless Development emphasized that young people need to meaningfully participate and digital transformation needs to carry everyone along. But he acknowledged that meaningful participation is often hampered by factors such as gender, race, and other intersectionalities.

Grace Msauki from the Zimbabwe Information and Technology Empowerment Trust spoke about the changes in youth development due to the advances in technology and globalization and encouraged collaboration across different generations and cultures for skills and knowledge sharing.

The digital age is reshaping our world, providing unique opportunities to accelerate sustainable development. Unprecedented advances in digital technologies and communications have revolutionized how we live, work, and connect, with the boundaries between our physical and digital worlds becoming increasingly blurred.

Digital technologies such as mobile devices, services, and artificial intelligence play a crucial role in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Young people are at the forefront of digital adoption and innovation. However, disparities exist, especially in low-income countries and among young women, who often have less access to the internet and digital skills than their male counterparts. While digital inclusion needs to be improved, youth are generally seen as digital natives, using technology to drive change and create solutions. With the 2030 deadline for the SDGs approaching, the role of young people in digital innovation is crucial for addressing global issues.

How can young people effectively engage with digital technology where their rights, e.g. freedom of expression, privacy, and safety are affected by the fact that digital spaces remain largely unregulated? There are no universal rules for those who design, operate, and profit from digital networks and services; nor is there an effective way to ensure that common standards intended to guide and protect our digital interactions are universally and equitably upheld. This significantly impacts the human rights of children and young people in the digital space, as a key demographic interacting with these technologies and the digital space.

It is therefore important to ensure that young people are actively engaged in regional and international decision-making processes and help to shape the outcome.

As part of Equality Now contribution to the commemoration of International Youth Day, it called for:

– Education reforms to ensure the education curriculum is inclusive of youth digital rights and safeguarding mechanisms

– SADC Member states to urgently prioritize legal reforms to ensure that laws are fit to uphold digital rights for young people, in consultation with youths and in line with international  and regional human rights laws and standards

– SADC Member States to ensure the strengthening of  accountability and oversight mechanisms at regional and national levels so that young people can access and enjoy their human rights in the digital space

– SADC Member States to provide public awareness programs at national and local levels to ensure that young people are aware of their rights in the digital space

– State and non-state actors to recognize and respect young people’s views and recommendations on legal, policy, and social solutions. This will ensure that young people are recognized as key agents in ensuring sustainable digital governance

– Youths to take up leadership opportunities, participate, and speak out to inform laws and policies design, implementation, accountability, and oversight mechanisms

– Member States to increase investment in facilitating inter-generational dialogue platforms and harmony to ensure sustainability, partnerships, and skills transfer to young people.

Through investments, governments can also ensure that youth-led organizations can also be supported to participate in national, regional, and international level platforms relating to digital rights.

Founded in 1992, Equality Now works to protect and promote the rights of all women and girls around the world. Our campaigns are centered on four thematic areas: Legal Equality, End Sexual Violence, End Harmful Practices, and End Sexual Exploitation, with a cross-cutting focus on the unique needs of adolescent girls. Equality Now combines grassroots activism with international, regional, and national legal advocacy to achieve legal and systemic change to benefit all women and girls and works to ensure that governments enact and enforce laws and policies that uphold their rights.