Specific issue for discussion:
This roundtable session is hosted by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, 2024 Chair of the Freedom Online Coalition, and will convene stakeholders from the Asia Pacific region to foster dialogue on digital issues and human rights, including the governance of the Internet and Artificial Intelligence technologies.
Participants will be invited to share their insights on these topics and how they relate to critical processes taking place in 2024, including the Summit of the Future, the Global Digital Compact (GDC), and the WSIS+20 review through exploring the role of the Freedom Online Coalition in shaping these global conversations.
Questions will be posed to the audience to explore the most pressing challenges to the protection and promotion of human rights online within the region; how the FOC can address these challenges and leverage the opportunities of digital technologies; domestic priorities relating to the GDC and WSIS+20 review; and regional initiatives and bodies the FOC should engage to continue fostering cross-regional dialogue.
About the Freedom Online Coalition:
The Freedom Online Coalition (FOC) is an intergovernmental coalition established in 2011 in the Hague, based on the belief that human rights people have offline must also be protected online, and committed to advancing Internet freedom worldwide. Today, the Coalition counts 40 Members spanning from Africa to Asia, Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East. The FOC works together, including through multistakeholder engagement with its independent Advisory Network (FOC-AN) and others who share these views, to ensure challenges and opportunities relating to Internet freedom and digital technologies are on the policy agenda as a way to drive concrete policy changes and outcomes, and shape global norms to promote a rules-based, democratic, and inclusive world where human rights and fundamental freedoms are upheld in online and digital contexts.
