Adopted by a Coalition of Asian Civil Society from 10 countries for a Just Digital Future in Bangkok in April 2026.

We, members of Asian civil society organizations from South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the wider Global South, come together in solidarity to affirm our shared vision of a digital future grounded in justice, dignity, inclusion, accountability, and care.

We believe that digital governance, including the governance of AI and online platforms, must be community-informed, rights-based, and shaped by the meaningful participation of those most affected by digital harms, including children/minors, transgender and other sexually marginalized communities and vulnerable groups.

We affirm that equitable access to digital technologies is a fundamental right that enables participation, voice, and accountability. Without it, entire communities remain excluded not only from digital spaces but from shaping the systems and decisions that affect their lives.

We call for stronger corporate and digital accountability through regional cooperation, rigorous human rights assessment, multistakeholder standards, and approaches that address harmful platform design, business incentives, and structural inequalities, rather than relying only on content regulation.

We support open-source, interoperable, decentralized, and socially responsible technologies that challenge monopoly power, advance the public good, and place the protection of human rights at the centre of their design, development and use.

We commit to strengthening digital literacy to ensure universal and meaningful access technologies, sharing knowledge and strategies across the region, and building safer digital spaces for all.

We call on donors to support local civil society through long-term, flexible, and core funding, and to co-create priorities that are responsive to local contexts and community needs.

We urge governments to protect the civic freedoms necessary for digital justice, including the freedoms of expression, association, assembly, privacy, and cross-border solidarity, free from repression and surveillance.

We recognize that developers and system designers must embed ethics, accountability and human rights into the technologies they build.

We commit to strengthening digital literacy, sharing knowledge and strategies across the region, and building safer digital spaces for all.

We stand together to advance a digital future that puts people before profit, justice before control, and solidarity before exclusion.

Cosignatories

Digital Rights Foundation

Digital Rights Nepal

Hashtag Generation

Center for the Study of Organised Hate

Digitally Right

Delete Nothing

Bolo Bhi

Media Matters For Democracy

Myanmar Internet Project

Tech Global Institute

Body&Data

Stop Online Harm

Rati Foundation

Point of View

We are deeply disappointed by the Zambian government’s decision to cancel RightsCon 2026, a decision that has dealt a serious blow to the global digital rights community. For years, RightsCon has been an irreplaceable space for cross-border dialogue and holding power to account. The crucial conversations we both organised and were looking forward to being part of - dialogues on rising TFGBV, running survivor-centred feminist helplines, and the need for Global Majority solidarity - were cancelled at a moment’s notice.

The impact of this loss will be felt far beyond Lusaka.

This matters beyond one cancelled conference.

Global Majority countries must stop ceding the space where the future of technology and rights is being shaped. For too long, these conversations have been dominated by one part of the world. As technology advances at speed, the window to build frameworks that are inclusive and universally applicable - frameworks these same governments are signatories to, is open right now. We call on Global South governments to seize it: to open their doors to the international community and demonstrate that they are ready to lead.

We stand firmly with the RightsCon organisers, speakers, and all who traveled to Lusaka in good faith. Your work is not diminished.

The fight continues, and DRF will be part of it.