By APC, CIPESA, WOUGNET |
This submission is a joint stakeholder contribution to the second cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism for Uganda. This submission focuses on women’s rights and the internet in Uganda. It explores the extent of implementation of the recommendations made in the previous cycle of the UPR and also identifies emerging concerns in Uganda regarding women’s rights online.
See the full report here
By Juliet Nanfuka |
The recently concluded two-day Forum on Internet Freedom in East Africa 2015 sparked debate on the many facets of internet freedom, including access to information, digital safety, media freedom, online violence against women, regulation of the internet, freedom of expression online, and the online economy.
The first day of the Forum coincided with the internationally celebrated Right to Know Day (September 28) and also served as a platform to recognise the tenth anniversary of the Access to Information Act in the host country, Uganda.
The Forum, organised by the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) under the OpenNet Africa initiative, brought together just under 200 participants, a dramatic increment from the 85 who participated at last year’s inaugural Forum. Participants represented a wide spectrum of stakeholders including communications regulators, civil society, intermediaries, private sector, tech enthusiasts, artists, media and ordinary citizens. It was supported by the African Centre for Media Excellence (ACME), Hivos, Ford Foundation, Open Technology Fund, UNESCO and Web We Want.
According to the ITU, there are currently 3.2 billion people using the internet of which, by end 2015, two billion will come from developing countries. There is therefore a need to create awareness and to advocate for internet rights in developing countries that are registering a dramatic uptake of the internet.
The African Declaration on Human Rights has set the foundation upon which human rights standards and principles of openness in internet policy formulation can be developed in Africa. While various policies and laws have been developed in the continent’s 54 countries, many contradict the rights to privacy, access to information, data security, and freedom of expression.
In his opening remarks at the Forum, Jaco du Toit, Communication and Information Adviser at the UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa, pointed to growing concerns over the mechanisms used by governments in the region to monitor citizen’s activities both online and offline. These concerns threaten legitimate online interactions including by the media that plays the role of society’s watchdog, and by critical citizens with large online footprints and human rights organisations that rely on information to encourage civic participation and good governance.
The use of ICT tools by citizens to exercise their right to free expression and as an engine for development is widely recognised especially as the push for open data gains momentum across the African continent. However, recognition of internet rights in the same breath as the rights guaranteed offline by national constitution remains a grey area.
Internet Freedom in East Africa
The forum served as the launch of the State of Internet Freedom in East Africa 2015 report on access, privacy and security online in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. The report is the result of qualitative and quantitative research conducted in the focus countries between May 2014 and August 2015.
The report highlights legal developments related to internet freedom in each of the focus countries such as the May 2015 ruling by the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) against the Burundi Press Law of 2013, on the grounds that some sections went against the principles of press freedom. This marked a victory for the Burundi Journalists Union who had petitioned the court over the repressive law. In Kenya, the Security Laws (Amendment) Act was signed into law despite concerns over its expansion of the surveillance capabilities of the Kenyan intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
In Tanzania, the controversial Cybercrimes Act and the Statistics Act were both passed in 2015 notwithstanding protests due to the restrictions they place on advancing transparency and access to information.
Progressive public access developments are also reported such as the Smart Kigali initiative which provides wireless internet service on select public transport buses. The Ministry of ICT in Rwanda also launched the “Stay Safe Online” campaign aimed at promoting awareness on cyber security.
The report also presents some of the violations of internet freedom that were registered in East Africa over the last year.
Knowledge, Attitudes and Perceptions on Internet Freedom
The report found that understanding of what constitutes internet freedom among the region’s citizens is varied. The majority associated internet freedom with the ability to utilise the internet free of unwarranted state regulations or commercial restrictions.
Online safety practice was low with only 48% of the respondents using digital safety and security tools to safeguard themselves online. A lack of awareness of security risks on digital platforms and shortage of skills to secure communications were among the reasons for not actively utilising online safety tools.
The report further found widespread perception among East Africans of government surveillance even where there was limited evidence remain prevalent of actual surveillance. Respondents cited national security, countering terrorism, and combating hate speech as key reasons for government surveillance.
Discussion Echoes Report Findings
Discussions in the 13 sessions at the forum repeatedly pointed out contradictory or non-existent laws to protect users especially in instances where critical content in writing, or creative and performing arts have led to arrests. This in turn has contributed to self-censorship by independent content producers and media.
Further, victims of online violence against women (VAW) do not have any legal structures to ensure their rights are upheld; instead, many are castigated more than the perpetrators of the violence. Limited legal provisions on the vice have thus led to a culture of silence and misinformation which in turn impacts upon reporting of cases to indicate the extent and actual statistics of VAW in African countries.
Discussions at the forum echoed insights gathered in the report, including the friction between control of content which impacts upon freedom of expression and regulation of the internet so as to combat hate speech and terrorism, and to maintain national security and public order.
“Ignorance of the law is not an excuse,” said Irene Kaggwa, Head of Research and Development at the Uganda Communication Commission on the need for responsible use of the internet. Jimmy Haguma, Acting Commissioner with Uganda Police’s Cybercrimes unit, , added that “freedom without control” would contradict certain needs, such as ensuring child online safety and protection from theft and fraud.
The challenges involved with ensuring that the internet is a safe space for genuine interaction were summarised by Facebook’s head of Public Policy for Africa, Ebele Okobi, who noted that “If Facebook were a country, it would be the biggest country in the world.” She added that the global platform faces a challenge of how to apply the laws of every country in which it has users in its policy on online content.
Underpinning all discussions at the forum was the use of social media and the need for users to build their digital security capacities as the online arena increasingly becomes the key avenue for social interaction. However, legislation in many countries has not moved fast enough to ensure the protection of users who fall victim to online abuse and violence.
In his closing remarks, Vincent Bagiire, Chair of the ICT Committee, Parliament of Uganda, emphasised the necessity for further engagement on internet freedom not only by civil society but with a more inclusive multi-stakeholder approach which works towards ensuring a free and open internet. He stated that this responsibility exists first at the national level, “but given the borderless, global nature of the internet”, it is also very much a global issue. “Internet freedom is both a domestic and a foreign policy subject,” he said.
The Forum had representation from 19 countries including Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Germany, Italy, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States of America, Zambia, Zimbabwe
For more details, visit the Forum on Internet Freedom in East Africa 2015 page, See the full programme and the speaker biographies.
As part of its OpenNet Africa initiative which is aimed at promoting internet rights in Africa, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) is next week set to host the second Forum on Internet Freedom in East Africa. The two-day event is scheduled for 28 and 29 September 2015, in Kampala, Uganda and will coincide with the International Right to Know Day.
Uganda was the first of two countries in East Africa to adopt an Access to Information Act (ATIA) in 2005 (the other is Rwanda in 2013) which promotes the right of access to information and supports public participation in decision-making processes. As part of the forum the Ministry of Information and National Guidance in the Office of the Prime Minister (Uganda) in partnership with CIPESA and the Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC) will celebrate the 10th anniversary of ATIA, host discussions to evaluate the implementation of the law, how to overcome challenges on implementation and proposals for amendments. The second State of Right to Information (RTI) in Africa report will also be presented.
In Africa, Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), the private sector, academia and ordinary citizens are increasingly utilizing online tools for social and economic engagement, online debate, advocacy and business development. The Forum will serve as a platform to discuss how the current state of internet freedoms in Africa affects these engagements. Further, it will also explore the threats online engagements face, how emerging global issues impact upon local users, as well as the opportunities for action to promote access, privacy and security online.
The 2015 edition of the State of Internet Freedom in East Africa Report will be launched at the Forum.
Ashnah Kalemera, Programmes Associate at CIPESA, says that, “This report is the culmination of exploratory research conducted in Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda into the threats to access, privacy and security online, as well as the knowledge, attitudes and practices of citizens on internet freedoms in these countries. The insights gathered can help guide policy makers, civil society, telecommunication regulatory authorities in understanding the internet freedom landscape in the region including the challenges, opportunities and developments.”
According to the International Telecommunication Union, by the end of 2015, there will be 3.2 billion users of the internet, of which 2 billion will come from developing countries. This translates to 34% of households in developing countries accessing the Internet, compared with more than 80% in developed countries. In the report focus countries, internet penetration in Burundi stands at 4.9% (2013 statistics), while according to 2014 statistics, Kenya had a penetration of 52%, while Rwanda was 20%, Tanzania at 4.8% and in Uganda at 20%.
The Forum brings together human rights defenders, journalists, government officials, academia, bloggers, developers, the arts community, law enforcement agencies and communication regulators, all of whom have a role to play in advancing the rights of citizens to privacy and freedom of expression in the online sphere.
Participants confirmed to attend hail from Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Germany, Italy, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States of America, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Speakers at the panel will come from organizations including Article 19, Bayimba (Uganda), Bloggers Association Kenya, Chapter 4, ICT Association Uganda (ICTAU), Globaleaks, Global Voices (Uganda), Great Lakes Voices (Rwanda), Hub for Investigative Media (HIM), iHub Research (Kenya), Internet Society [(Africa, Burundi and Uganda Chapters], Jamii Forums (Tanzania), UNESCO, Facebook, Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet), Makerere University (Uganda), Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Paradigm Initiative Nigeria, Protège QV, Uganda Media Centre, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), Uganda Police Cybercrime Unit, University of Nairobi, Web We Want, Writivism (Uganda) and the Women Of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) among others.
Topics to be discussed include electioneering and extremism in the digital age, press freedom, access to information online, the economics of the internet, digital safety, online violence against women and cybercrime. See the Programme.
We are thankful for the support received from the African Centre for Media Excellence (ACME), Ford Foundation, Hivos, Open Technology Fund, UNESCO and Web We Want.
South Africa is among the top five African countries with the highest mobile broadband reach, preceded by Ghana, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Egypt. As of June 2014, internet users had increased to 52% of the population, majority of them using mobile devices to access the internet.
Although the country has been ranked free in internet freedom rankings and held highly in respect to promoting equal rights, recent developments in the offline and online world say otherwise.
In March 2015, a consumer activist who runs the CAMcheck blog that reports on misleading claims made by consumer goods providers, was forced to move his website offshore following a take-down request made by sports supplement company USN for content described as “unsubstantiated and defamatory”.
According to Section 78 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (ECTA) 2002, ISPs are not obliged to monitor the data they transmit or to actively seek facts or circumstances indicating an unlawful activity. Service providers are, however, liable for failure to comply when issued with takedown requests from users as provided under Section 77 of the Act.
It is thus no surprise that Hetzner, the CAMcheck blog web hosting provider, also a member of the South Africa Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA), complied with the take down request.
Also in March 2015, the Film and Publication Board (FPB) gazetted a Draft Online Regulation Policy, 2014, which contains clauses that have the potential of blocking online content – including films, games and certain publications – prior to publication.
The regulations require that anyone wishing to publish or distribute such content has to first acquire a digital publisher’s online distribution agreement with the FPB, after paying a subscription fee. Once paid, the publisher would have to submit the content to the FPB for classification prior to publishing.
The FPB has the mandate to regulate the creation, production, possession and distribution of films, games and certain publications by way of classification, to protect children from exposure to disturbing and harmful material and from premature exposure to adult material and to criminalise child pornography and the use and exposure of children to pornography.
The Draft Online Regulation Policy states that, the policy, “read with the Online Regulation Strategy and the ECT Act Amendment Bill, will also ensure that classification focuses on media content, rather than on platforms or delivery technologies.”
However, civil society organisations have criticised the draft policy, stating that they are “effectively a specific form of pre-publication censorship, which is not acceptable.” They also add that the time spent on the pre-classification of content would undermine one of the most valuable traits of the internet – its immediacy.
Further concerns about the new regulations include the exclusion of content by parties unable to pay the fees required and thus a potential limitation on the diversity of online content.
But online content censorship is not new in South Africa. In 2012, “The Spear”, a controversial painting by Brett Murray which depicted President Jacob Zuma with his genitals exposed, was published on the City Press website – a daily newspaper. President Zuma and the African National Congress Party obtained an order for the removal of the image from the website of City Press on the grounds that it was unfit for viewers under the age of 16, according to classifications by the FPB. The Goodman Gallery (where the painting was displayed) approached the FPB Appeal Tribunal which found that the ruling in favour of the injunction was incorrect. The City Press nonetheless removed the image from its website.
Meanwhile in the first quarter of 2013, the South African Counter Intelligence Agency made a content removal request to Google for a blog post that was ‘allegedly infringing copyright by criticizing a media release that the agency had issued.”
Although this request was denied, past incidents together with recent developments in the country bring to the fore the crucial online freedom issues of intermediary liability and freedom of expression.
In its 2014 State of Internet Freedoms in South Africa report, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) highlights these gaps. It states that the absence of detailed provisions in the guidelines for recognition of industry representative bodies of ISPs “creates a situation where ISPs are not free to establish any ’notice’ or ‘notice and put-back’ mechanism, which would allow the user to respond to the allegations of infringement or, respectively, to provisionally restore the allegedly infringing content.”
The ECTA Amendment Bill of 2012 attempts to address some of the existing gaps by introducing Section 77A, which provides consumers with the right to be heard by ISPs before a takedown notice is enforced. However, this section still has limited provision for a user to respond to the allegations of infringement or to provisionally restore the allegedly infringing content. ISPs are merely required to respond to a “first take-down notice” within 10 business days (lesser days if the complainant can demonstrate irreparable or substantial harm).
The 2014 report calls for a review of South African legislation that is applicable to online freedom, specifically pointing out the need for immediate revision of the Films and Publications Act.
The report also recommends increased dialogue between civil society and policy makers to progressive law reforms, including a review of legislation that have actual or potential chilling effects on internet freedom.
Read the full State of Internet Freedoms in South Africa Report here.
By Ashnah Kalemera
The eSociety Resource Centre Kasese is a community centre hosted by the Kasese district local government in Western Uganda. It acts as a one stop point for local government officials and community members to access various Information Communication and Technology (ICT) tools and services. The centre provides ICT training programmes, hosts an information library, runs an online discussion group, maintains a news blog and social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube). These are all aimed at enhancing citizens’ competence in monitoring government services, promoting accountability, civic participation and good governance in Kasese District.
Since 2011, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) has provided support to the centre, including computer equipment, internet subscription, centre maintenance and support to an ICT training officer. The support is in the context of CIPESA’s project which seeks to promote citizens’ use of ICTs for improved governance partly through grassroots public ICT access centres. The other partner centres in the project are the Northern Uganda Media Club (NUMEC) and the Busoga Rural Open Source and Development Initiative (BROSDI).
The eSociety centre hosts an average of 250 users per month, mainly local citizens, journalists and local government officials. CIPESA has offered media and district officials training in citizen journalism, geocoding methodology and data collection, information access and dissemination.
During the course of the CIPESA-eSociety partnership in 2014, we conducted a poll survey amongst a random selection of the centre users to assess their capacity and proficiency in demanding for better services, and participation in governance processes.
The results of the poll survey
On the frequency of internet access through mobile (phone and tablet), and desktop/laptop computer at home, work, internet café or the eSociety Centre 34% indicated daily use of the internet and 33% weekly.
When queried on the frequency of using ICTs to engage with leaders, 28% of respondents said they contacted their local leaders at least once a week, while 22% contacted them daily. Another 22% admitted to never contacting their local leaders.
Discussing a governance/service delivery issue was the reason most people (77%) contacted their local leaders. Second was following up on election manifestos (16%). Only 11% contacted their leaders to request for district budget information.
Email was the most commonly used means of contacting leaders at 72%. None of the respondents used text messages to contact their leaders despite widespread mobile phone ownership. Also, with an increasing number of people, including leaders, using social media, the platform was only used by 11% of respondents to contact leaders.
Table 1: ICT tools used to contact local leaders
| Tool | Yes | No |
| Sending an email | 72% | 28% |
| Using social media (Facebook, Twitter) | 11% | 89% |
| Telephone call | 50% | 50% |
| Text message | 0 | 100% |
| Other | Physically/ Word of mouth | |
For 89% of respondents, drugs shortages in local hospitals/health centres was the most pressing community need. This was followed by corruption and poor road infrastructure.
Table 2: Pressing service delivery issues in Kasese district
| Issue | Percentage of respondents |
| Drugs shortages in hospitals/health centres | 89% |
| Corrupt officials | 83% |
| Poor state of roads | 83% |
| Lack of clean water | 78% |
| Poor state of hospitals (facilities and standards) | 72% |
| Low staff levels (doctors and teachers) | 72% |
| Poor state of schools (facilities) | 67% |
Challenges to using ICTs
The most widely cited challenge to the use of ICT tools in accessing service delivery information in the local community was the high cost of accessing and using tools – cited by 78% of survey participants. Another common challenge was the lack of immediate feedback from the responsible officials (17%). Other challenges cited by respondents included unreliable electricity supply, poor network coverage (voice and data), and the long distances that citizens have to travel to access ICT centres/services.
The poll results indicate a good level of citizen engagement and awareness of service delivery issues in Kasese District. They further show that free ICT services provision for the centre’s users has enhanced service delivery monitoring and citizen participation in governance through ICTs in Kasese district. However, there remains need to continue identifying emerging ICT participative practices and needs at the centre, and building citizens’ capacity to effectively engage with their leaders for improved service delivery and governance. There is also the need for more leaders to more proactively engage with the ICT tools that citizens are increasingly utilising to reach them.
CIPESA’s iParticipate Uganda project is part of the ICT4Democracy in East Africa Network which is supported by the Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions (Spider) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
Featured image from: http://rwecovoice.blogspot.com/2010_11_21_archive.html