AlSur 2024 Annual Report

The past year 2024 left us with more shadows than lights with respect to the balance of human rights in digital environments.  It was a year marked by multiple violations in political and social conflicts, setbacks in the fulfillment of fundamental rights and greater tensions between States and platforms. It was also marked by the drafting of several international instruments such as the Global Digital Pact (GDC) and the International Convention against Cybercrime - both of which have several aspects that can be criticized and whose reasons we argue below.

This context was challenging for organizations working at the intersection of technology and human rights, which led us to strengthen ties and redouble our efforts in advocacy actions. In this brief post, we review our year.

Our international advocacy

At the international level, in 2024 we witnessed the articulation of several international spaces and the approval of several critical instruments for internet regulation at the global level. The AlSur consortium followed and actively participated in three of these processes:

In the first half of the year, the NetMundial+10 event was organized in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This was a space led and convened by the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br) to bring together governmental actors, technicians, academics, companies and civil society organizations at the global level, to reaffirm the principles of open, inclusive and participatory Internet governance, and to give a greater role to the global South in Internet governance. The result was a Declaration of 10 principles that recaptured many of the ideas with which NetMundial was convened a decade ago.

Between July and August, the conversation on the International Convention on Cybercrime was resumed, a document that left many concerns due to its regression on several points that we consider essential. Several of AlSur's organizations closely followed this discussion and made their contributions-despite this, the approved text legitimizes mass surveillance, enables criminalization at national and international level, and involves setbacks to several human rights standards. For this reason, we generate a position calling on governments and their delegations in Latin America to take into account these risks to the dignity of their citizens and the sovereignty of their nations. A new treaty must not validate the criminalization of legitimate behavior, nor intrusive surveillance practices that undermine human rights and gender equality.

A few months later, in September, after more than two years of work, the Global Digital Compact (GDC) was published within the framework of the Summit of the Future. We understand that the GDC was a key opportunity to build a global action plan to address the multiple inequalities that affect our societies and prevent entire groups of our population from benefiting from technological advances. Therefore, this was an instrument that we have followed closely and to which we made several contributions over time. In our contributions we have been emphasizing some points that we consider key taking into account the Latin American reality: the need to respect and apply human rights in the digital context; the urgency of moving towards concrete commitments to meaningful connectivity; the importance of data protection and the relevance of rights-based regulatory frameworks to address the advancement of artificial intelligence. Our vision is that the human rights framework and a cross-cutting gender perspective are fundamental to building an agreement that aims for an equitable and just digital future for all people.

In the last stage of discussion of the GDC, we organized two spaces-an online preparatory meeting in August and a face-to-face side-event in New York City-to discuss with delegates from several Latin American countries their perspectives on the future implementation of the GDC. Part of this process was recorded in a blog post. Throughout these meetings, the importance of meaningful digital connectivity was highlighted, while the need to build capacity for AI governance and to preserve the Internet as an interoperable and secure network was emphasized. The complexity of sustaining negotiations due to differing views on the key agreements required was also mentioned.   Overall, the importance of maintaining Internet governance from a multistakeholder debate and recognizing the mandates of existing spaces, such as the IGF, WSIS, among others, was established.

However, the GDC left a taste of little, with disappointing results on several issues and with difficulties for the participation of non-state actors, which led several AlSur organizations to join the global concern about the implementation process.

Towards AI regulation?

The year 2024 saw the discussion on the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) intensify globally and with much emphasis on Latin America. Several countries in the region are starting discussions on the matter, and in others, as is the case of the recent breakthrough in Brazil, this exploration is already a bit more mature.

Although it is difficult to follow up and keep up with all the processes, especially with new technological advances that are accelerating in time, we have made a record of the regulatory situation in some countries. In Latin America, AI technologies have been promoted with a narrative of economic and social development. However, the omission of an articulated dialogue between state entities and civil society organizations draws a complex cartography of ethical, methodological and even epistemological concerns regarding the regulation of AI in the countries of the region.

Based on these insights, earlier this year we completed a first analysis based on case studies in Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Colombia, which were included in our most recent publication: “Regulatory Pathways for AI in Latin America”.

We want a more future-proof AlSur

This year AlSur has further strengthened its internal structure and is oriented towards taking more concrete steps towards its consolidation. A first challenge has been to generate a clearer governance structure by appointing an Executive Committee that is led by Heloisa Massaro (InternetLab) and Ramiro Alvarez Ugarte (CELE) and that accompanies the decision making and execution of actions by the Executive Secretariat (Cristian León). Also, for the first time, AlSur has a person specialized in international advocacy (Carolina Botero), who is helping to promote increasingly articulated strategies based on the experience and knowledge of the consortium members.

With this structure, AlSur has been able to make its actions more dynamic, strengthen its capacities and generate its own rhythm of articulation. This was evidenced by the fact that 2024 was the year in which the consortium was able to have more face-to-face and virtual meetings, re-established specific working groups for different purposes and had a greater outreach to international forums. Towards 2025 and 2026, the consortium seeks to continue taking steps in this direction through the development of a governance and institutional strengthening strategy.

At the same time, it was also able to replicate several of its past good experiences. Thus, in 2024, the “onboarding” course was organized for the second time, which is an internal space created so that AlSur member organizations can accelerate the development of their teams' capacities through training with international specialists, as well as strengthen collaboration ties. It is expected that next year, this course can be expanded and opened to other organizations in Latin America.

In 2025 the global landscape will be defined by the implementation of key agreements and the advancement of international processes such as the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS+20) that will reflect on 20 years of progress. This forum will be instrumental in underscoring the importance of meaningful civil society participation and promoting more inclusive connectivity. It will also be the year that the implementation of the Global Digital Compact begins and more certainties are raised in this regard, as well as the ratification and deepening of the discussions around the International Convention against Cybercrime.

All this will demand that as civil society we can further deepen our capacity for advocacy, activism and defense of human rights in digital environments and that we manage to weave stronger ties not only at the level of our consortium, but also beyond it.  We reaffirm our convictions to seek a more just, inclusive and democratic digital future.