RightsCon Toronto 2018

There has been a proliferation of technological tools for human rights defenders, offering new ways for activists to carry out their work and achieve their missions. However, uptake of these tools by local activists on the frontlines of the human rights movement has been difficult. Much of the technology available - often developed by international organisations - is inaccessible to community based organisations or groups working with marginalized or rural communities. Despite this, grassroots human rights defenders are beginning to experiment and develop their own innovative low-tech solutions to enhance their day to day work, experiments that are developed in context with local capacity, access and challenges in mind. The problem, however, is that frontline groups often lack the technical expertise and resources to develop robust technological solutions, and are also often isolated from the conversations around technology and human rights happening at the international level, making it difficult for them to build upon, and improve their low-tech work.

‘Innovation on the frontlines’, will feature a diverse group of grassroots human rights defenders – all of whom are utilizing different and unique context-specific low-tech solutions to support their work. The panel will be moderated by David Mattingly, Vice President of International Programs at the Fund for Global Human Rights, and will provide frontline defenders a platform to interact directly with the international human rights and technology communities - to share their experiences about what technology is working for them, what is not, and why.