Digital Divide

International criminal practice reflects biases toward high-resource languages, affluent states, and prestigious institutions. Along with its many benefits, digitalization of international criminal evidence has begun to further entrench some of the distance between differentially situated individuals. This post seeks to address the role that digital solidarity should play in the collection and analysis of international criminal evidence. Incorporating aspects of digital solidarity into the field of international criminal law would help address asymmetries in public international law and the digital realm through anchoring digital spaces and connectivity to such spaces in universal human rights and combatting the so-called “digital divide.” Through integrating aspects of digital solidarity into the field of international criminal law, legal practitioners can work to prevent the systematic relegation of already marginalized voices

The growth in the popularity of the internet around the world, as evidenced by growing user numbers, particularly in Africa, has enabled citizens to harness its power as a tool of agency, creating new global and transnational spaces for civic participation, advocacy, and social change. Digital technologies have become crucial tools for African citizens to highlight concerns, claim rights, and demand social justice. At the centre of this digital transformation are two key and interconnected concepts: (i) digital citizenship to claim rights; and (ii) digital solidarity to act collectively to secure social change. These twin concepts highlight that citizens exercise their rights and collectively support each other in the digital realm. This post reflects on how these two concepts manifest in the African context and how they are shaping the continent’s socio-political landscape.

This Call for Papers, hosted by the Afronomicslaw.org and convened by PhD students (Karin Frodé, Christopher Yaw Nyinevi, and Yohannes Eneyew Ayalew) and affiliates of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law at Monash University, Australia, seeks to examine the broader challenges, opportunities, and debates of digital solidarity in international law and policy. We welcome contributions from both established and emerging scholars with an interest in the topic. We highly encourage submissions from Global South scholars and critical voices addressing these topics in ways that raise matters of concern to Global South communities.