RightsCon Tunis 2019

Technology as a tool and its attendant benefits such as internet offer different layers regarding the concept of inclusion or exclusion. Benefits accruing to individuals is not just a matter of blanket roll-out of initiatives that benefit everyone once such technology or infrastructure is deployed in a given community. The assumption that such deployment and its concomitant benefits is inclusive are flawed. Our society is dominated by a number of socio-cultural, political and environmental factors among others that inhibits exclusion because technology tools normally sits on a cultural context. Understanding the unique barriers within the context of our societies and how those barriers have negative implications on use of these services by women and girls, men and boys, minority right groups such as LGBQTI communities are imperative. Its on the basis of the unique barriers that several segments in societies experience in the use of internet technology and other digital modes of communication needs further interrogation. This session expect to explore, discuss, examine and interrogate the different dimensions to the concept of inclusion and or exclusion to identify constraints to meaningful access and use and devise or propose strategies to engage policy makers and actors.