Reports

The Covid-19 Observatory of the Al Sur Coalition (OCCA) is an initiative of 11 civil society organizations grouped in the Al Sur Coalition, which seeks to analyze how local technological responses to Covid-19 comply with basic data protection and access to information principles and best practices, and whether they represent additional risks to the exercise of human rights.

This document is presented by the Al Sur consortium and was prepared by one of its members, Karisma Foundation (Colombia), in response to the request made by the ITU for civil society to report problems and challenges for the expansion of connectivity in rural and remote areas, and the role of community networks in this process of reducing the urban-rural digital gap.

With EFF, EDRi, IT-Pol Denmark, Article 19, Derechos Digitales, and Homo Digitalis, Al Sur has presented a joint report with shared concerns on the new draft of the Second Budapest Additional Protocol on Cybercrime.

Our submission focused on demanding the main following changes to the provisional text:

Al Sur requests governments of Latin America and the Caribbean to ensure that digital technologies applied in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic respect Human Rights. [Document in English].

Joint declaration that explores the effects that the European Copyright Directive may have in Latin America and the Caribbean if local authorities replicate some of the most controversial aspects of the initiative. [Document in Spanish].

Al Sur sent a presentation to the "Guide to guarantee freedom of expression regarding deliberate disinformation in electoral contexts" presented by the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression of the Organization of American States. This is the first time that Al Sur has contributed to the issue of disinformation in Latin America, and we are pleased to say that our document was considered in various aspects of the final guide. [Document in Spanish].

This document is a contribution to the public consultation on "Ethics and data protection in artificial intelligence: continuation of the debate" promoted by the ICDPPC (International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners). As indicated in a report made by ICDPPC after receiving presentations, Al Sur's presentation was the only one made by civil society and from the context of the public interest. [Document in English].

To collaborate in the report "The surveillance industry and human rights" made by the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Al Sur presented a regional overview of how surveillance industry has affected several human rights in the region [document in English].

On the occasion of the international call made by Facebook to receive contributions for the "Draft Charter: An Oversight Board for Content Decisions," Al Sur decided to present its regional approach. Among many suggestions, Al Sur proposed that the Oversight Board have the power to directly impact the regulatory design of the platform's content policies. [Document in Spanish].

Although the term private security could be very broad, this report focuses on the use of surveillance technologies by private security in the field of "citizen security". In a context of increasing digitization of our societies, this document provides clues to the most urgent and important public policy challenges in the context of protecting our human rights.