Human Rights First Deplores Zambia’s Decision to Cancel RightsCon

Washington D.C. — Human Rights First deplores the extraordinary, last-minute decision by the Government of Zambia to cancel the RightsCon meeting scheduled for May 5-8 in Lusaka due to pressure from the People’s Republic of China. In recent years, RightsCon has become one of the biggest and most important forums for digital and human rights activists globally and for a free exchange of ideas on how to thwart increasing authoritarianism on the Internet as well as in the physical world. This cancellation and similar challenges in holding RightsCon in other countries make it all the more incumbent on rights-respecting governments to facilitate such convenings.

Human Rights First CEO and President Uzra Zeya said the following about this development: 

“The decision by the Government of Zambia to cancel RightsCon due to pressure from the People’s Republic of China is a significant blow to the fundamental freedoms of expression, association, and movement and to the efforts of the many thousands of digital and human rights activists who rely on this gathering to strengthen freedom both online and offline for all. This unexpected turn of events is a deeply troubling instance of the sort of transnational repression that China and so many other rights-abusing governments engage in, and the international community should be unified in opposing it.”