On 27 January the Centre for Human Rights hosted the Dutch Special Envoy for the Global Conference on Cyberspace, Mr Uri Rosenthal, who outlined the topics of the Global Conference on Cyberspace (GCCS2015) that will be held in The Netherlands, The Hague, in April 2015.

Mr Rosenthal, a previous Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, is in the process of conducting consultations across the world, to inform the planning and priorities of the GCCS2015.

The fourth Conference on Cyberspace GCCS2015 has three key objectives: a) to support implementation and practical cooperation, b) to promote capacity building and knowledge exchange in cyberspace and c) to discuss norms for responsible behaviour in cyberspace. In order to achieve these there will be four focus sessions dealing with international security, socio-economic topics, cyber-criminality and freedom and privacy.

In the discussion following a short speech by Mr Rosenthal, attention was brought to specific issues of African countries concerning cyberspace, for example access to the internet, freedom of expression, data security, protection of children online and questions on how to address the use of the internet by terrorists to recruit young people for their cause.

Students of the Centre’s Master’s programme in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa, who are from countries around Africa, raised issues of concern to Africa, in particular. The Special Envoy then took note of these concerns and expressed appreciation for the consultations.