On 28 May 2026 Alan Finlay for the Association for Progressive Community reflected on the implication of the cancellation.
The shock of the cancellation of RightsCon in Zambia this year is still reverberating amongst human rights defenders who are grappling with the implications for their advocacy work. Like other networks across the globe, APC was impacted by this turn of events that disrupted the plans of many of its members, as well as staff; it wasn’t just a financial blow, but the loss of an opportunity to meet and strategise face-to-face, to network with donors and other organisations, and raise awareness about key advocacy issues that needed to be pushed forward on the global digital rights agenda.
While RightsCon 2025 was hosted in Taipei, Taiwan, AccessNow attributed the cancellation at least in part to behind-the-scenes pressure from China for Taiwanese participants to be excluded from the event in Zambia. This wasn’t necessarily something new for civil society. APC member in Taiwan Open Cultural Foundation (OCF) explained that Taiwanese civil society has seen China react strongly even to seemingly non-political international events when it believes its sovereignty claims or geopolitical interests are being challenged. JCA-NET, a member based in Japan, also pointed to several similar restrictions on participation in events in the past: “It is not uncommon for major powers to block foreign participation in important international conferences,” the organisation’s Toshi said. “Last year, the United States blocked PLO Chairman Abbas from attending the UN General Assembly. Japan also refused to issue visas to some participants for the 2023 IGF in Kyoto.”
Neither was having a government change its mind mid-stream something extraordinary, even for AccessNow – in 2023 Costa Rica failed to grant visas-on-arrival for many RightsCon participants, despite a prior commitment from its government.
But having an international event of this size “postponed” by a government just days before it was due to start – which the Special Rapporteur Gina Romero called a “clear violation of the rights to freedom of assembly, association, and expression” – was, for many, unprecedented. It was, as one APC member from South Asia summed up, a “sobering reminder that digital rights work does not happen in a neutral space.”….
“Political deviations have become extreme and a consensus over the universality of human rights no longer exists,” said Pavel Antonov from Bluelink, an organisation based in Bulgaria and advocating for digital rights in the European Union. “National governments can no longer be trusted on their commitments. It’s a wake-up call for human rights defenders around the world.”
…“This happened to Zambia now, but this could easily happen in the US or an EU member state,” warned Antonov.
And the signs are there. “I work in the private sector for economic reasons but also for political reasons,” said one anonymous APC associate also based in the EU. “I do not work in the NGO space or in human rights anymore as I am an immigrant in an EU country with a very restricted civic space. If I expressed my views about Palestine and certain other conflicts I might lose funding and residence. I am not happy to be a victim of chilling effects, but my family and children are currently more important. A talk at the University in my city was cancelled today and raided by the police.” The question then becomes: Where do activists find a sense of certainty, of at least something they can rely on? Who can they trust?
For many in APC, the answer lies in putting faith in their own political commitment to building bottom-up structures driven by communities. “As a fundamental principle, we should not equate the state with the diverse people living within its borders,” said Toshi. “It is important to prioritise these diverse people above all else, rather than the state.”
Part of this re-thinking how solidarity could best be actualised also raises the question of how expensive it is to participate in conferences such as RightsCon – especially in the context of the currently strained funding environment.
“The cancellation of RightsCon imposes a significant financial burden on civil society organisations across the board, but in particular the ones in the Global South,” said Betancourt. It is not only organisations in the Global South who are struggling to find the resources to participate in the many forums that happen each year. While JAC-NET had competing advocacy priorities, and the language of the event was a barrier, RightsCon was simply too expensive for them to attend in-person despite being based in Japan.
For some this offered a moment to pause and reflect, a chance to ask: Can things be done differently? There was a need to “become more collaborative within the digital rights movement itself, particularly in how limited resources are used,” said Ramanujam.
“As civil society organisations, we must work to avoid duplicating efforts, build on each other’s strengths, and work more strategically based on our different positions and capacities within the broader ecosystem.”
“I would like to see international and regional digital rights organisations and networks come together and figure out how regional and global rights convenings can build on each other,” said Chat Garcia Ramilo, APC’s Director. She mentioned several annual regional convenings “spearheaded by like-minded civil society organisations” to illustrate her point. Apart from the Digital Rights Asia-Pacific Assembly, which attracts activists, academics, techies and policy makers in that region, three of them were held in Africa alone: the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAFRICA), the Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum, and Bread & Net, which bills itself as the leading digital rights ”unconference” in West and North Africa. …
Most in the APC community nevertheless also emphasised how important forums such as RightsCon amongst others including the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) were for organising around digital rights.
“We need to continue finding, creating and advocating for these spaces, acknowledging and supporting the range of expressions and reactions, even if we don’t fully agree with all parts of it,” another member from the region said. “These spaces are crucial to exchange ideas, learn from each other, get inspired but also to demonstrate collective power.”
As we assess the impact of this year’s RightsCon cancellation, the APC network is also reflecting on the lessons learned and the tools already at our disposal to help us move forward. Overall, a call to share learnings and strengthen joint action emerged as a common thread across many reflections within the APC network.
| Sharing a glimpse of what the APC community would have brought to RightsConIn a push to create alternative spaces for community exchange, when we reached out to our network for this article, we also asked: ”If RightsCon had gone ahead, what key message would you have highlighted in your sessions/interventions?”While we will not be able to reflect the full, compelling agenda and APC’s priorities for this year’s event, here we present some of the insights shared:https://www.canva.com/design/DAHKtmLB-cA/6UrGaUUEYVmbrqCoFmq10Q/view?em |
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