Participants at the 2019 Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum in Lagos, Nigeria agreed that the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms is a good starting point for the protection and promotion of online rights and freedoms on the continent, which are increasingly under threat.

In the session, titled “Consolidating a pan-African approach to building an open and useful internet in Africa”, participants noted that not only had there been an increase in violations against citizens’ access to and use of the internet across the continent, but that this trend was worsening. This is particularly so as governments continue to enact repressive policy and legislation and apply extrajudicial means to limit freedoms online.