Technology & Civic Space
Technology is reshaping civic space by providing new tools and spaces to exercise the freedoms of expression, association, and peaceful assembly. But these same tools also provide new opportunities for governments and private actors to increase surveillance and restrict rights.
ICNL works closely with our global network of partners to develop international, regional, and national legal standards to ensure that new technologies protect basic freedoms and allow civil society to flourish. ICNL also builds the capacity of civil society to better understand how emerging tech works and ways new tech may affect civic freedoms. Increasing their tech fluency enables our partners to work with technologists and governments to craft polices and products that protect fundamental freedoms.
2025 in Numbers
CSO partners assisted on digital issues:
1,161
Legal resources created:
46
Contributions to multilateral initiatives on digital civic space issues:
31
Promoting Rights-Based AI Governance
As AI and digital technologies evolve, so do government efforts to regulate them. ICNL works to ensure that human rights protections remain central in that process. Our recent initiatives include helping shape the UN’s first General Assembly resolution on AI and co-leading the Freedom Online Coalition’s Task Force on AI.
Helping NHRIs Protect Digital Rights
National Human Rights Institutions play a vital role in promoting human rights, but they have yet to comprehensively address rights in the digital space. ICNL sought to tackle this gap in Africa by creating a Toolkit designed for African NHRIs and is now working to ensure that NHRIs effectively operationalize it in their work.
What We Do
Bridging the Knowledge Gap
From data protection to online content restrictions, ICNL provides its partners with capacity building opportunities so they can better understand and act upon emerging threats to digital rights.
ICNL recently worked with EngageMedia to advance Indonesian civil society’s knowledge of artificial intelligence, the strengths and weaknesses of different governance models, and the current AI global governance landscape.
Supporting Research
Quality research is essential for decisionmakers to understand the impacts of emerging technologies and to enact legislation that is suitably targeted and proportionate.
ICNL leverages its global experience to help inform partners’ research initiatives, such as our work in Nepal or with the Asia Center on its recent report on the rise in technology-facilitated gender-based violence in Cambodia.
Norm-Setting
ICNL actively engages in UN processes, the Freedom Online Coalition (FOC) Advisory Network, and regional human rights bodies with the goal of advancing rights-based norms and inclusive approaches in digital governance. We also co-chair the FOC’s Task Force on AI and Human Rights.
In the last year, ICNL contributed to two norm-setting processes led by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and helped our partner in Ecuador do the same.
Key Resources
CivicSpace.tech
This interactive resource aims to expand tech literacy amongst civil society and development professionals. It explains how emerging technologies are relevant to civic space, details the risks and opportunities if you decide to use them, and covers broader technology trends in democracy, human rights and governance.
Download
UN Global Digital Compact
This global framework for digital cooperation was adopted by UN Member States in 2024 and includes concrete commitments for States and other stakeholders on human rights, data governance, artificial intelligence, and more.
ICNL participated in the Compact consultative process throughout 2024 – see our submission here. We also helped draft and co-signed a Civil Society Joint Statement that highlighted weaknesses in the final text and made recommendations for implementation.
Enhancing Digital Civic Space through the OGP Process
This ICNL guide offers a checklist of principles to help states enact digital policies that enhance civic space. It also includes recommendations for OGP commitments and examples of positive practices and policies that OGP members are already undertaking.
Download
Navigating the Risks of Digital ID Systems
The SDGs call on States to provide legal identity for all as a means to bridge socio-economic divides. Many Governments, in turn, have been moving quickly to adopt advanced digital ID programs, without assessing the array of risks. This resource, created in cooperation with the Open Government Partnership, provides guidance to inform investments in these powerful systems.
Learn More
Free Online Advocacy Course
ICNL has partnered with Advocacy Assembly to offer an online course that demystifies international human rights law and how it applies to the digital space. It features a mix of video, slides, interactive quizzes, and real world examples, including lessons learned from one of ICNL’s partners in Tanzania. This course is free, easy to navigate, and only takes one hour to complete!
Take the CourseMore Recent ICNL Work
▷WSIS+20 Joint Submission: As part of the Global Digital Rights Coalition for WSIS, ICNL contributed to a joint civil society submission to the WSIS+20 review process, calling for a human rights-based and multistakeholder approach to global digital governance. The submission outlines key recommendations to strengthen protections for civic space and digital rights in the evolving information society.
▷ ICNL Helps Inform Oversight Board Decision on Peru: Meta’s oversight body recently cited ICNL’s input in a decision that helped protect a human rights defender who was targeted on social media.
▷ Blueprint on Information Integrity Online: ICNL contributed written and oral inputs to the “Blueprint on Information Integrity Online,” a Freedom Online Coalition guide to navigate challenges posed by the complexities of the online information ecosystem.
Other Useful Resources
Artificial Intelligence
• Freedom Online Coalition Statement on AI and Human Rights: Issued at the Internet Governance Forum in June 2025, this statement establishes human rights as the foundation for AI governance and has been endorsed by 24 countries.
• The World According to ChatGPT: This short piece examines how GhatGPT and similar tools might affect civic space and democracy in the coming years – both by creating new issues and exacerbating existing problems.
• How Can AI Amplify Civic Freedoms? The future of democracy is entangled with AI. This ICNL piece examines ways that it can be used to strengthen civic space.
For more on how AI impacts human rights, check out ICNL’s freedom of expression page.
Online Privacy
• U.S. Current Trend: Surveillance Technologies: This article examines surveillance technologies that have implications for protestors in the United States, including cell-site simulators, facial recognition software, and drones and other aerial equipment.
• COVID-19: The Surveillance Pandemic: During the pandemic, some governments incorporated surveillance technology in their efforts to halt the disease’s spread. While the use of all the tools at hand is understandable, emergencies do not exempt states’ from their human rights obligations. This piece examines some of instances of overreach.
ICNL’s Regional Work
• Regulation of Digital Surveillance and the Impact on Civil Society in Africa: This pair of reports examines digital surveillance practices in Kenya and South Africa, along with their impacts on civil society.
• Kazakhstan’s New AI Regulatory Framework: Read our analysis of Kazakhstan’s new legislative framework on artificial intelligence, which was adopted in late 2025.
All Technology & Civic Space Resources
ICNL at DRIF 2026: Advancing Digital Civic Space in Africa
Kyrgyzstan’s Digital Code: Complying with Personal Data Provisions
Global: Protecting Civic Freedoms through Digital Security and AI Governance
Explore our full global resource collection, which includes reports, legal analysis, and curated collections of materials covering an array of issues impacting civic space around the world.
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