RightsCon Tunis 2019

Utilizing digital tools to put human rights at the centre of business (Business & Human Rights Resource Centre)

Speakers: Alex Guy

The Resource Centre’s digital platform equips affected workers and communities, human rights advocates, investors, staff at companies, and government officials with the information they need to address corporate abuse of human rights. During this session we will demo several tools that participants can use to strengthen their work, including: - The Resource Centre website, containing over a decade of information on corporate human rights performance, including allegations of abuse and responses from companies; - Benchmarks that assess companies’ human rights performance, including the 2018 ICT KnowTheChain benchmark which evaluates 40 electronics companies’ policies and actions to address forced labour risks within their global supply chains; - Infographics and a database of attacks against human rights defenders focused on business-related issues that helps illustrate the severity and scale of violence that HRDs face across the globe; and - Investment Trackers, which can help users understand the landscape of companies investing in and employing migrant workers in the Gulf, Jordan, and Lebanon. We will also share the future roadmap for the Resource Centre’s digital platform and ask for your feedback about the tools and resources you need to help put human rights at the centre of business.

Teaching Freedom of Expression Without Frontiers    (Columbia Global Freedom of Expression)

Speakers: Bakhtiyor Avezdjanov

Developed by Columbia Global Freedom of Expression with partners from around the world, the “Teaching Freedom of Expression Without Frontiers” Portal offers academic and training resources on the laws, institutions and actors that have founded a global system of freedom of expression and information. The Portal was developed in response to a paucity of content on freedom of expression from a global, as opposed to a national, perspective, and inclusion of standards from the Global South. These gaps are widening due to the ongoing rejection of the global project characterized by strong nationalist currents. In this context, it is important to provide ease of access to content detailing a global perspective on freedom of expression and to improve capacities of educators to teach it. This lightning talk will: 1. Unpack the meaning and the importance of adopting a “global perspective” to freedom of expression teaching or training, 2. Introduce the “Teaching Freedom of Expression Without Frontiers” portal and provide a short tour of its functions, 3. Examine the portal’s accessibility, usability and content, and 4. Identify strategies to stimulate greater teaching, training and understanding of global perspective on freedom of expression.

Promoting Youth’s Rights to Privacy, Participation, and Education Through Co-Designed Educational Resources (Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University)

Speakers: Alexa Hasse

Extending youth’s privacy, participation, and education rights to the digital world, Berkman Klein’s Youth and Media (YaM) team has co-produced a series of learning resources for and with young people (ages 12-18) — some translated into over 35 languages and implemented in countries such as Africa, India, and Pakistan. By co-designing these educational resources with youth, we have been able to develop tools that incorporate youth voices and perspectives, connecting various knowledge areas related to the digital world with young people’s interests and experiences. Currently, over 100 such learning resources are available through our team’s open access Digital Citizenship+ (Plus) Resource Platform (DCRP).

Against this backdrop, during this session, our team aims to:
- Introduce the co-design method, which acts as a guiding philosophy in our work.
- Showcase the DCRP, and with educators who have employed and adapted YaM’s learning resources, empower attendees to utilize the DCRP by demonstrating simple ways to adapt the platform’s learning resources according to their contexts.