December 10 will mark the annual celebrations for international Human Rights Day.
This year’s theme, “My Voice Counts“, will focus on inclusion and the right to participate in public life, emphasizing the right of every individual to voice their opinion and take part in public discourse and decision-making processes.
In just a few years, the Internet has emerged in many parts of the world as a major platform for communication and expression, amplifying the voices of millions of people across the world. The multistakeholder and bottom-up model of Internet development is itself an example where stakeholders can play a key role in the decisions that shape their communities.
This year’s theme offers a great opportunity to reflect on the open and global Internet as a tool which has the potential to shape societies in a way that is more tuned to the needs and aspirations of their constituents.
As part of our engagement on Human Rights Day, we would like to hear from you to get a better understanding of the opportunities that your government is offering to participate in public life through the use of the Internet and ICTs, if any.
To that end, we invite you to fill the following online form:
We will reflect your feedback on a dedicated page of our website from 10 December onwards. (note: we will not display names on the website, but only Chapter affiliation).
In addition, we would like to invite you to make your voice heard and join us on several of the following initiatives:
- Join now our Thunderclap campaign to send out a single message to the world on Twitter and Facebook on Monday 10 December
- make your #VoiceCount on Twitter
- Visit our website dedicated to this day: www.internetsociety.org/humanrightsday
- You can have a look at our new blog post on the Internet and the right to participate
- On 10 December at 2:30pm UTC, the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) will host a Google+ Hangout for #VoiceCount Human Rights Day. Together with other participants, High Commissioner Navi Pillay will discuss issues related to inclusion and the right to participate in public life. We invite you to participate and raise Internet related issues during the discussion. You can also send questions to the OHCHR in advance to #AskRights.
We look forward to your participation in making this celebration a success!