The Secretariat of the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms Coalition (hereafter referred to as AfDec) invites African researchers, academics, journalists and human and digital rights activists to submit a synopsis of an in-depth piece that explores national and/or regional responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa and their impact on human rights online.
Background
This series of articles will be published as part of AfDec’s ongoing project “Securing human rights online in Africa through a strong and active ‘African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms’ network”, which seeks to promote human rights online.
Criteria
AfDec is interested in articles that meet the following criteria:
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Offers a highly reflective analysis on the impact of existing national and/or regional internet-related policies or recently adopted national COVID-19 prevention, containment and treatment policies that involve digital technologies.
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Promotes human rights online as articulated in one or more of the 13 principles of the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms (for an outline of the principles visit: https://engage.africaninternetrights.org).
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Gives prominence to best practice and/or offers sound recommendations for national- and regional-level advocacy in response to emerging violations of online rights.
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Presents a high level of contextual information on the issues, with at least three citations or sources.
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Gathers a diversity of voices and/or experiences involved in the matter.
Submission
Authors are invited to submit their synopsis for an in-depth article of 2,000 to 3,000 words in length by 29 April 2020 through this link.
A total of 20 articles will be selected by a five-member editorial committee comprising AfDec members and representatives of the Southern African National Editors Forum, the ICT Policy Centre for East and Southern Africa, the Association for Progressive Communications and the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Human Rights. In reviewing submissions, the committee will be guided by the need for wide sub-regional representation, thematic angle and linguistic diversity and inclusivity.
Decisions regarding acceptance/revision/rejection will be communicated by 2 May 2020.
Depending on the word count, AfDec will pay up to USD 700 per article. The articles will be published on the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms website. Further deadlines will be discussed once proposals for articles have been accepted, with the final date of publication scheduled for the end of June 2020.
All inquiries should be directed to AfDec Coordinator Koliwe Majama: koliwe@apc.org.