Abstract

This report introduces findings from ten digital rights landscape country reports on Zambia. They analyse how the openings and closings of online civic space affect citizens’ digital rights. They show that: (1) when civic space closes offline citizens often respond by opening civic space online; (2) when civic space opens online governments often take measures to close online space; and (3) the resulting reduction in digital rights makes it impossible to achieve the kind of inclusive governance defined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Highlights

  • Civic space remains open in only two of Africa’s 54 countries,1 according to CIVICUS (2020)

  • We imagined that our contribution would mainly illustrate the range of creative ways that citizens have responded to closing civic space offline by opening civic space online

  • We found nearly twice as many examples of the use of digital tactics to close civic space online as we found of the use of digital tactics to open civic space online

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Summary

Introduction

Civic space remains open in only two of Africa’s 54 countries, according to CIVICUS (2020). This report presents the literature review used by the African Digital Rights Network to provide the conceptual framing for the commissioning of digital rights landscape country reports on ten African countries It presents preliminary findings and makes tentative recommendations designed to enhance the ability of citizens to exercise, defend, and expand their digital rights. Civic space refers to the public places where citizens can freely exercise their human rights. This includes the right to freedom of opinion and expression. Civic space is crucial for any open and democratic country in which citizens and civil society are free to hold powerholders accountable, draw attention to neglected issues, and foster inclusive decision-making at all levels (Kode 2018). Many anglophone Cameroonians feel sidelined by the francophone regime, which has led to protests and even separatist movements in recent years

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