HARARE – Much needs to be done to secure and promote human rights in Africa, but >The events in the Middle East have proved the power of the new mobile technologies in promoting awareness, democracy and dissemination of information. In many countries in Africa, there is now a vibrant civil society, which, although often still repressed, can no longer be ignored by those in power.
Across the world, 2010 and early 2011 may well be remembered as a watershed year when activists and journalists used new technology to speak truth to power. Information is a source of power, and for those challenging the abuse of power by states and other institutions, it is an exciting time we live in today. Platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Google have made all this possible.
The innovative use of tracking and recording abuses pioneered by the Ushahidi.com website in Kenya has been widely praised. Ushahidi has opened up a whole new set of possibilities for conflict prevention. There is nothing magical or deterministic about the Internet and other communications technologies. Technology itself neither respects nor undermines human rights, technology will serve the purposes of those who control it whether their goal is the promotion of rights or the undermining of rights.
While recognizing the contribution of WikiLeaks to promoting human rights, Shetty says the morality of revealing secret cables written by American diplomats was not clear-cut.
In detailed assessments of the state of human rights in countries across Africa, Amnesty states the following:
In Uganda, law enforcement officers
In Zimbabwe,
In Swaziland,
In Sudan,
The influence and control of dissemination by a number of governments around the world has been a huge challenge in fostering information dissemination. As more innovations around mobile technologies enter the market, we hope to see a remarkable improvement in unfettered information dissemination.
Post published in: News