From limitation to derogation of rights: Revisiting internet shutdowns during elections in Africa
Posted: 14 June, 2024 Filed under: Chrispin Bosire | Tags: Access to Information, Access to the internet, African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, data protection, digital rights, dissemination of opinions, elections, free speech, Freedom of Information and Expression, government-led internet shutdowns, human rights standards, illegitimate restrictions, internet disruptions, internet shutdowns, liberty of expression, national security concerns, press freedom, violation of rights, vital electoral information Leave a comment
Author: Chrispin Bosire
Advocate of the High Court of Kenya
Introduction
Free access to information, free speech and liberty of expression contribute to democratic elections. Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Charter) guarantees the right to receive information and safeguards freedom of expression and dissemination of opinions. Access to information and press freedom are important elements of free expression. This right is now exercised both offline and online, as provided under Principle 5 of the 2019 press freedom. However, systemic internet disruptions and restrictions on access to communication platforms are on the rise in Africa. This has negatively affected the people’s right to expression during elections, and meaningful access to vital electoral information, necessary to make informed decisions.
A human rights approach to internet taxes in Africa
Posted: 17 September, 2019 Filed under: Tomiwa Ilori | Tags: African Charter, bloggers, Communication Service Tax, digital rights, e-commerce, expensive broadband, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, Ghana, ICESRC, ICTs, internet, internet taxation, Kenya, Nigeria, Online Content Regulations, protecting internet rights, right to access information, sub-Saharan Africa, Tanzania, tax, taxation, Uganda, UN Guiding Principles on Extreme Poverty 1 Comment
Author: Tomiwa Ilori
HRDA Alumni Coordinator/Researcher: Democracy, Transparency and Digital Rights Unit, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
Due to increasing underdevelopment in sub-Saharan Africa, many governments have looked towards several means to make up for deficits in domestic fiscal planning. One of the means through which governments have financed their budgets is by levying higher taxes on companies and individuals to be able to raise revenue.
While there may be legitimate reasons for states to levy taxes, in order for a tax system to be regarded as good and effective it needs to comply with at least five basic conditions: ensure a beneficial system; transparent in collection and use; less bureaucratic and equitable – every person should pay a fair amount of taxes not injurious to their well-being. While Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) potentially impact the global economy, not all economies have thrived equally. In most sub-Saharan African countries, the impacts of ICTs have been least felt which damages the prospects of democratic development in the region. Read the rest of this entry »
The impact of Internet shutdowns in Africa
Posted: 21 February, 2019 Filed under: Tomiwa Ilori | Tags: ACHPR, Africa, African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, African Governments, Arab-spring, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), digital rights, Egypt, electoral malpractices, Freedom of Expression And Access to Information, general elections, ICCPR, ICESCR, internet, internet shutdown, Johannesburg Principles on National Security, national security, public protests, shutdown, Siracusa Principles, state power, Sudan, technology, violations, Zimbabwe 2 Comments
Author: Tomiwa Ilori
LLD Candidate, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
In the past, authoritarianism like any other form of illegitimacy has always been paranoid of disruptions. The internet, since its decentralisation in the last century, has blurred boundary lines, projected a classless society and looked to upset apple carts in political spaces. It is typical that this form of “magic” that could redefine state power rattled many governments. African governments soon began to show overt signs of paranoia and not too long, Africa became the first continent to experience an internet shutdown in Egypt on 28 January 2011. Since then, several governments in Africa have constantly violated digital rights with the justification of national security which supposes that both are mutually exclusive.
AfricLaw 
Repressive Laws Silencing Dissidents, Deviants and Destabilisers in Uganda
Posted: 5 July, 2024 | Author: AfricLaw | Filed under: Contributors, Stella Nyanzi | Tags: Access to Information, Anti-Homosexuality Act (2023), Anti-Pornography Act, Computer Misuse (Amendment) Act, detained without trial, digital rights, Excise Duty (Amendment) Act, free expression, freedom of expression, General Comment 34, human rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), internet democracy without disruptions, Model Law on Access to Information, Musiri David, President Yoweri Museveni, public information, public media, restrictive laws, social media, Social Media Tax Law, state repression, Uganda, Uganda Human Rights Commission, Universal Declaration of Human Rights | 1 CommentWriters-in-Exile program, PEN Zentrum Deutschland
Fellow, Center for Ethical Writing, Bard College/ PEN America.
Summary
In Uganda, there is an incongruence between the legal regime governing access to information and freedom of expression on one hand, and a barrage of restrictive laws on the other. Although a decade has passed since the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights adopted the Model Law on Access to Information for Africa, growing state repression in Uganda generated laws aimed at silencing, denying access to information, criminalising and penalising government dissidents, deviants or minorities whose behaviours departed from societal norms, and destabilisers suspected of subverting the entrenchment of President Yoweri Museveni’s 37-year-old regime. I triangulate autoethnography with public media content analysis and law review to explore this incongruence within the right of access to information and free expression in Uganda.
Read the rest of this entry »