I recently attended the Digital Rights Asia-Pacific Assembly 2023 (DRAPAC23) organized on 22nd May – 26th May 2023 at Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Digital rights advocates around the world including academics, journalists, media-makers, artists, designers, technologies, and youth advocates representing multiple countries from the Asia-Pacific region gathered during the assembly to strengthen solidarity and networks among changemakers, champion diversity and inclusion within the movement, and bridging the gap between media, technology, and human rights fields.
I had been selected as a DRPAC23 fellow and as such was required to choose and attend the sessions that intrigued me from a pool of 120 sessions spread out over five days including workshops, panel discussions, art exhibitions, and so on which would help me improve my understanding of the global digital rights movement and develop tools, techniques, and network to further advocacy movement on a personal and organizational level. I would also be running a workshop titled ‘Your #DigitalPrivacy Toolkit’ which would incorporate safe practices, tools, and techniques for maintaining digital privacy.
After an exhausting flight and a long transit, I arrived in Chiang Mai on the 21st of May, a day before the assembly officially began. During the evening of the 21st of May, all the fellows were invited to attend a dinner with the DRAPAC23 organizing team and other essential stakeholders. Attending this dinner allowed me to learn about the struggles of digital rights advocacy in other countries in Asia. The learning had begun before the assembly officially started.
The following day, we officially began the assembly with an opening session with opening remarks by Phet Sayo, the Executive Director at EngageMedia, the main organizer of DRAPAC23, and Dr. Ora-orn Poocharoen, the Founding Director of the Chiang Mai University School of Public Policy. The plenary session for the opening day focused on building knowledge of digital rights in the Asia-Pacific region.
After the opening session, each participant dispersed across multiple venues to attend the sessions they had signed up for. The first session that I attended was titled ‘Running a Digital Security Helpline’ organized by Digital Defenders Partnership (DDP). I was able to learn about the rise of digital security helplines in Nepal and the challenges associated with them including language struggles, safe-guarding, personnel burnout, and so on.
Following the session, I went in to check the logistical arrangement for the session to be organized by Safer-I Nepal. I was present physically for the workshop with the rest of the team at Safer-I joining online to address any questions that the participants might have.
Around 32 participants had signed up for this one-hour workshop. The workshop was divided into two parts; securing digital identity and securing data safety. For the first part of the workshop, the participants were introduced to password security tools, anonymity tools, VPNs, and tools as such. During the second part of the workshop, the participants were introduced to data backup practices, encryption tools, and so on. We also shared a resource mentioning the application of each tool mentioned, their download links, and their tutorials. The team then answered any questions or confusions that the participants might have had throughout the session.
Each evening, we were then invited to dinner with all of the participations. The food often represented a certain theme with my favorite being the traditional Thai cuisine being served during the third day of the workshop. The dinner gave us the time to reflect on our learnings for the day while also getting to network with other fellows.
After dinner, we would attend the movie screenings organized by Cinemata. We got to watch stories of people around the Asia-Pacific region including how technology has been affecting their daily life in both positive and negative ways.
We would follow the same schedule for the rest of the days of the assembly. After attending the plenary sessions, we would disperse to attend the sessions of our choosing. After attending 3-4 sessions each day, we would meet up for dinner and then for the movies.
Throughout the assembly, I got to attend workshops and panel discussions on digital citizenship, digital safe space creation, hate speech, collaboration building, countering disinformation, tech organizing, and online gender-based violence. I got to hear countering perspectives from neurodivergent folks, queer folks, indigenous folks, and other vulnerable voices. As the assembly has come to an end, I feel privileged to be part of such a diverse and inclusive movement. I feel I have a better understanding of my role in the digital rights movement and I have my work cut out for me. Thank you to the team at EngageMedia for their coordination throughout the assembly period.