{This is the second installment in our series highlighting the 2015 Host Organizations for the Ford-Mozilla Open Web Fellows program. We are now accepting applications to be a 2015 fellow. Amnesty International is a great addition to the program, especially as new technologies have such a profound impact – both positive and negative – on human rights. With its tremendous grassroots advocacy network and decades of experience advocating for fundamental human rights, Amnesty International, its global community and its Ford-Mozilla Fellow are poised to continue having impact on shaping the digital world for good.}
Spotlight on Amnesty International: A Ford-Mozilla Open Web Fellow Host
By Tanya O’Carroll, Project Officer, Technology and Human Rights, Amnesty International
For more than fifty years Amnesty International has campaigned for human rights globally: exposing information that governments will go to extreme measures to hide; connecting individuals who are under attack with solidarity networks that span the globe; fighting for policy changes that often seem impossible at first.
We’ve developed many tools and tactics to help us achieve change.
But the world we operate in is also changing.
Momentous developments in information and communications networks have introduced new opportunities and threats to the very rights we defend.
The Internet has paved the way for unprecedented numbers of people to exercise their rights online, crucially freedom of expression and assembly.
The ability for individuals to publish information and content in real-time has created a new world of possibilities for human rights investigations globally. Today, we all have the potential to act as witnesses to human rights violations that once took place in the dark.
Yet large shadows loom over the free and open Web. Governments are innovating and seeking to exploit new tools to tighten their control, with daunting implications for human rights.
This new environment requires specialist skills to respond. When we challenge the laws and practices that allow governments to censor individuals online or unlawfully interfere with their privacy, it is vital that we understand the mechanics of the Internet itself–and integrate this understanding in our analysis of the problem and solutions.
That’s why we’re so excited to be an official host for the Ford-Mozilla Open Web Fellowship.
We are seeking someone with the expert skill set to help shape our global response to human rights threats in the digital age.
Amnesty International’s work in this area builds on our decades of experience campaigning for fundamental human rights.
Our focus is on the new tools of control – that is the technical and legislative tools that governments are using to clamp down on opposition, restrict lawful expression and the free flow of information and unlawfully spy on private communications on a massive scale.
In 2015 we will be actively campaigning for an end to unlawful digital surveillance and for the protection of freedom of expression online in countries across the world.
Amnesty International has had many successes in tackling entrenched human rights violations. We know that as a global movement of more than 3 million members, supporters and activists in more than 150 countries and territories we can also help to protect the ideal of a free and open web. Our success will depend on building the technical skills and capacities that will keep us ahead of government efforts to do just the opposite.
Demonstrating expert leadership, the fellow will contribute their technical skills and experience to high-quality research reports and other public documents, as well as international advocacy and public campaigns.
If you are passionate about stopping the Internet from becoming a weapon that is used for state control at the expense of freedom, apply now to become a Ford-Mozilla Open Web Fellow and join Amnesty International in the fight to take back control.
Apply to be a 2015 Ford-Mozilla Open Web Fellow. Visit www.mozilla.org/advocacy.