RightsCon2025
- nellevision
- Apr 16
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 24
From February 24 - 27, the 13th edition of RightsCon was held physically in Taipei and online globally. I travelled there with my podcast partner and dear old friend Brett Solomon to hear about some of the issues facing thought leaders around the world today.
We interviewed some of the thousands of human rights activists gathered there to share stories and build networks. Twenty-three people in all sat with us over a three day period for a special series of This Week In Cyberspace. This was also the first time that Brett and I filmed our TWICS episodes and you can see them on Spotify, Apple and now Youtube.
Ukranian activist Tetiana Avdieieva wore gold glitter eyeshadow for her interview with us. Abounding in optimism, Tetiana is a Senior Legal Counsel at digital Security Lab in Ukraine. She also co-authored her country's media law reform and is engaged in AI governance processes both in Ukraine and on the Council of Europe level. She talked about securitisation among other things.
"In the case of Ukraine currently, we are trying to trade human rights for democracy and visa versa. ...We're fighting an adversary who has no rules."
We also spoke with Antonio Zappulla, CEO at the Thomson Reuters Foundation. In 2022 Antionio was knighted as an Officer of the Italian Republic for "merit acquired in the fields of public service, and social, philanthropic and humanitarian activities' under the OMRI order, the highest-ranking honour of the Italian Republic. We talked with him about LGBT rights in the digital age and how to protect NGOs from legal challenges.
"The pendulum is swinging very fast in the other direction and the people who won these battles in the past 25 years in the west are concerned."
The gig came with some unexpected perks. Aws Al-Saadi helped me retrieve my Meta accounts after four months locked out from them. He is an advisory board member of International Fact-Checking Network, and the Founder and president of Tech4Peace. He talked to us about the rise of fake news and how to counter it.
After speaking with all these leaders I still reckon the most radical act is to disconnect. But connectivity is also vital for our ever questing human minds. So a healthy mix of forest bathing and building solidarity online seems like the future, at least for me.
