Africa's digital rights landscape is coming under fresh scrutiny this week as policymakers, human rights institutions and civil society converge in Dakar for the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights' 89th Ordinary Session. Paradigm Initiative (PIN), a pan-African digital rights organisation, is using the gathering to push governments toward firmer protections for internet freedom, artificial intelligence governance and media independence. The session runs from 12 to 21 October at the King Fahd Palace Hotel, bringing continental attention to issues that rarely receive sustained policy focus.
Why AI Policy and Media Freedom Are Under Scrutiny
PIN's intervention centres on a concern shared by digital rights advocates worldwide: that technology is outpacing the rules meant to govern it. Artificial intelligence systems are being deployed across sectors in Africa with limited regulatory oversight, raising unresolved questions about accountability when algorithms make decisions affecting people's lives, how personal data feeding these systems is protected, and whether automated tools entrench discrimination rather than reduce it. PIN argues that the slow pace of AI policy development leaves citizens exposed just as the technology's reach expands into finance, security and public services.
Media freedom forms a second pillar of the organisation's advocacy. Restrictions on journalists and on the free flow of information remain persistent features of the digital environment in several African countries, whether through internet shutdowns, surveillance of reporters, or legal pressure on independent outlets. PIN contends that protecting journalists and ensuring public access to reliable information are inseparable from broader human rights protections, since an informed citizenry underpins accountable governance.
Children's Safety and the Londa Research Base
PIN is also drawing attention to children's rights in digital spaces, advocating for safeguards against exploitation and harmful content while preserving young people's access to the educational and social benefits connected technology can offer. This balancing act, protection without exclusion, reflects a wider global debate about how to regulate platforms used by minors without cutting them off from legitimate opportunities.
Much of PIN's position draws on its Londa report, a continental study tracking digital rights violations and freedoms across African states. Representing the organisation at the session are Bridgette Ndlovu, Partnerships and Engagements Officer, and Moussa Waly Sene, Programmes Officer for Francophone Africa, who will deliver a statement during the Commission's discussions on the human rights situation across the continent.
Elections, Accessibility and Disinformation on the Agenda
Alongside its formal statement, PIN is organising a series of side events in Dakar aimed at translating advocacy into practical tools. On 13 October, PIN and the Network of African National Human Rights Institutions will examine how national rights bodies can monitor digital rights during elections, drawing on PIN's Digital Rights and Elections in Africa Monitor Toolkit. The same session includes a screening of "The Signal," a short film addressing digital accessibility for people often excluded from online spaces.
A Digital Rights Academy for journalists follows on 14 October, focused on information integrity and the responsible handling of news in an era of rapid, often unverified, information sharing. On 15 October, PIN will present findings from its research project Africa Facing Down Disinformation, including specific data on information disorders in Senegal and recommendations for strengthening the country's information environment.
Taken together, these sessions reflect an approach that pairs continental advocacy with localised, actionable research, an acknowledgment that protecting rights online requires both policy pressure at the institutional level and practical capacity-building among those who monitor elections, report the news, and build the digital systems Africans increasingly depend on.