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How can citizen voices advance digital rights?

Report Release: Citizen Voices for Digital Rights

By Democratic Society

Democratic Society has just published the report "Citizen Voices for Digital Rights", which is the result of more than one year of work carried out within the framework of the Cities Coalition for Digital Rights and with the engagement of the CC4DR member cities Amsterdam, Bordeaux, Tirana and Milan.

Citizen Voices for Digital Rights consisted of three phases of work. The first one was based on online workshops, one held in each of the four cities, bringing together local digital rights experts to provide local context and an insight into the priorities and ‘hot topics’ of the area, as well as any existing work on related topics. The second consisted series of events, held with a group of residents from the cities of Milan, Amsterdam, Bordeaux and Tirana. And lastly, the third phase brought together the participants from all the four cities at a virtual ‘central’ event.  

The report addresses the role of digital technologies and develops a practical approach to improve the active participation of citizens in data collection, data governance and knowledge creation. It also seeks to co-design pathways for citizens to advocate for their own, and their communities', digital rights.

The report's key takeaways

The four key points illustrated below will be critical issues to address for cities that want to develop their digital strategies in open and participatory ways. These digital strategies can in fact be understood from a democratic point of view as a key tool for advancing digital rights; and digital literacy should be framed as a condition for the ability of more people to critically partake in the digital transformation.

 

 

 

 

Read the full report on Democratic Society's website.

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