The Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, in collaboration with Access Now, invites you to a webinar on internet shutdowns and their impact on human rights in conflict-affected countries in Africa. The webinar will focus on how internet shutdowns exacerbate the impact of conflicts by preventing people from accessing critical information on conflict trends, restricting humanitarian access, concealing accountability for human rights violations, and depriving affected populations of essential information.
Event details
Date: Tuesday, 25 March 2025
Time: 10:00 (SAST)
Venue: Online (Zoom)
Background
Internet shutdowns have become an escalating global crisis, with 2024 marking a record-breaking year for such disruptions. Reports from monitoring organizations indicate that 2024 has set a record for internet shutdowns, with Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition documenting 296 shutdowns in 54 countries. This surpasses 2023, which was previously the worst year on record, with 283 shutdowns in 39 countries. The trend underscores the growing use of internet blackouts as a means of repression, silencing dissent, and facilitating human rights violations.
These blackouts are triggered by various factors, including elections, exams, and protests, but the most concerning catalyst has been conflict, which has topped the list in both 2023 and 2024. Perpetrators use methods such as jamming devices, cutting cables, destroying infrastructure, and sabotaging service providers to implement these shutdowns. Reports from human rights organizations reveal that these shutdowns often coincide with grave human rights abuses. For instance, in 2023, 74 conflict-related shutdowns occurred in 9 countries, with 51 coinciding with grave human rights abuses. In 2024, the numbers reached a new peak, with 103 conflict-related shutdowns in 11 countries, 72 of which coincided with egregious human rights abuses such as murder, torture, rape, or apparent war crimes and atrocities. This suggests that internet shutdowns are not only tools for controlling information but also facilitators of violence and impunity.
Africa has consistently ranked among the most affected regions, with internet shutdowns increasing year by year. In 2023, 17 shutdowns occurred in 9 African countries, nearly doubling from 9 shutdowns in 7 countries in 2022. This figure surged in 2024, with 21 shutdowns recorded in 15 African countries, making it the region's highest number ever documented in a single year. These shutdowns have occurred in various contexts, including elections, protests, and conflicts. While all internet shutdowns have profound human rights implications, those imposed in conflict settings have proven particularly devastating for already vulnerable populations, as seen in Ethiopia, Sudan, and DRC.
For instance, in Ethiopia, successive armed conflicts over the past five years, including the brutal war in Northern Ethiopia (2020-2022), the ongoing conflict in the Amhara region since August 2023, and the armed confrontation between the government and rebel groups, alongside persistent ethnically motivated violence in Oromia, have been accompanied by targeted internet shutdowns, which shield government forces and militias from scrutiny as they commit massacres, extrajudicial executions, and airstrikes on civilians and civilian infrastructure. Similarly, in Sudan’s ongoing civil war, both the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have used internet shutdowns, which, among other effects, obscure severe human rights violations and prevent millions of people from communicating with their families, accessing safe zones, obtaining essential necessities, and utilizing mobile money services. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has also imposed communication shutdowns amid intensified conflict with the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group, affecting areas such as Goma, the capital of North Kivu, since January 2025. Other countries in the region, including Libya and Mozambique, have also documented internet shutdowns coinciding with severe human rights abuses. The impact of these shutdowns is far-reaching. They hinder human rights defenders and journalists from documenting violations, prevent affected populations from accessing life-saving information, obstruct humanitarian aid efforts, and shield perpetrators of war crimes and other atrocities from accountability. Despite these devastating effects, the global response to this escalating crisis remains insufficient, necessitating urgent attention from states, international organizations, businesses, and civil society.
It is, therefore, crucial to remind states of their international human rights obligations to refrain from unjustified internet shutdowns. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which countries such as Ethiopia, Sudan, DRC, Mozambique, and Libya have ratified, mandate that the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, assembly, and access to information must be protected by states at all times, including during conflicts, both online and offline. These obligations are further reinforced by soft laws adopted by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. For instance, the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa (2019) urges states to refrain from engaging in or condoning any disruption of access to the internet and other digital technologies for segments of the public or an entire population. In addition, the Resolution on the Right to Freedom of Information and Expression on the Internet (2016) highlights the importance of the internet in advancing human rights and expresses concern over the increasing trend of state-imposed internet shutdowns. The recently adopted Resolution on Internet Shutdowns and Elections in Africa (2024) further emphasizes the need to avoid interrupting telecommunications services, shutting down the internet, or disrupting access to digital platforms.
Objectives
This webinar aims to:
- Shed light on the phenomenon of internet shutdowns in conflict settings, examining the relationship between shutdowns and conflict, the role of conflict in triggering shutdowns, and how shutdowns serve as indicators of deteriorating human rights conditions.
- Explore the impact of shutdowns on conflict-affected areas, focusing on the circumstances and modalities of shutdowns, and their consequences for civilians, media, humanitarian efforts, and accountability mechanisms.
- Discuss the challenges in detecting, monitoring, and reporting internet shutdowns in conflict-affected regions, particularly in regions where access to independent verification is restricted;
- Mapping out strategies to counter or mitigate the impact of the increasing trend of shutdowns in conflict-affected regions, in alignment with human rights principles and standards.
Panel:
Keynote Speaker: Hon. Commissioner Ourveena Geeresha Topsy-Sonoo, Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa.
Moderator: Hlengiwe Dube, Manager: Expression, Information and Digital Rights Unit, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria
Speakers
- Felicia Anthonio, Access Now
- Razan E H Ali (Sudan)
- Mesenbet Assefa (Ethiopia)
- Arsène Tungali (DRC)
- TBC (Mozambique)
For more information, please contact:
Henok Ashagrey
Project Officer: Expression, Information and Digital Rights Unit
Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law,University of Pretoria
henok.kremte@up.ac.za
Felicia Anthonio
#KeepItOn Campaign Manager, Access Now
felicia@accessnow.org