1 EMPOWERING ONLINE VOICES: A CYRILLA POLICY BRIEF ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA Introduction Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right recognised globally and enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.1 This right is multifaceted in nature as it looks into the delicate balancing act between the extent of this freedom and how it impacts other human rights. With the advent of the internet, this right has expanded its domain, enabling individuals to express themselves more freely and access information from diverse sources. internet shutdowns in the wake of election seasons, surveillance misinformation, and disinformation. To point out its prevalence in the Sub-Saharan African context, a research study noted that 28% of women interviewed from 5 countries i.e. Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda, had experienced some form of online abuse, with 36% of those instances being unwelcome sexual advances.4 Several initiatives, such as enacting and implementing cybercrime regulation laws in SubSaharan Africa, have led to the adoption of statutes centred around providing a safe online space for users across 17 jurisdictions in Africa.5 Flowing from this, the Cyberrights Research Initiative and Localised Legal Almanac (CYRILLA) Collaborative is a global initiative established in 2019 that maps and analyses the evolution and impacts of legal frameworks in digital environments by aggregating, organising, and visualising distributed legal data through open research methodologies, data models, taxonomies (classifications), and databases thus enabling various stakeholders to evaluate legal trends and their implications in digitally connected spaces.6 The Collaborative is composed of five organisations: the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law (CIPIT), Social There is also a concern about whether the existing laws recognise freedom of expression online.2 When these expressions cause injury to another person, then technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) occurs. TFGBV is an emerging form of human rights abuse that stems from the exercise of freedom of expression in online platforms through the spread of hate speech and other forms of abuse and directly affects the safety and well-being of the communities.3 It is often referred to as cyber violence, and this is further discussed in this policy brief’s succeeding parts. Importantly, concerns have arisen in recent years regarding the regulation of online speech and access to the internet, including issues like TFGBV, content regulation and censorship, Media Exchange (SMEX), Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Derechos 1 Universal Declaration on Human Rights (adopted 10 December 1948) 217 A(III) (UNGA), art 19. United Nations, ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights,’ https://www. un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights#:~:text=Article%2019,media%20and%20regardless%20of%20frontiers. Accessed 12 April 2024. 2 Ugandan Constitutional Court’s decision in Unwanted Witness (U) Ltd v Attorney General and 4 Others (Miscellaneous Cause 50 of 2021) [2022] UGHCCD 228 (decided 27 April 2021) 3 International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), ‘Technology-facilitated Gender-Based Violence’ ICRW, May 2019 page 23 <https:// www.icrw.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/TFGBV-Collateral.pdf> accessed 11 June 2024. Iyer N, Nyamwire B and Nabulega S, ‘Alternate Realities, Alternate internets: African Feminist Research for a Feminist Internet’ August 2020 <https://www.apc.org/sites/default/files/Report_FINAL.pdf > accessed on 11 June 2024. 5 Achieng G, ‘A Ten-Point Strategy Towards Ending Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence in Africa’ Tony Blair Institute, 7 March 2022. 6 ICT Policy Africa, https://ictpolicyafrica.org/en/page/tt599ms931e Accessed 12 April 2024. 4 5