By Dev Kumar Sunuwar (Koĩts-Sunuwar, CS Staff)
The 13th edition of RightsCon, the world’s leading summit on human rights in the digital age, hosted jointly by Access Now and the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) of Taiwan, was held in Taipei, strongly emphasizing Indigenous voices and the challenges they face in a rapidly evolving technological revolution. This year’s conference, held from February 24-27, 2025, in Taipei, Taiwan, in-person and online, brought together over 3,000 participants in-person from 150 countries, including various stakeholders from across public and private sectors, such as policymakers, tech companies, technologists, academics, journalists, civil society organizations, and human rights activists to discuss the intersection of human rights and technology.
The opening ceremony set the tone for the conference, with organizers highlighting the importance of Indigenous Peoples’ perspectives and acknowledging the Ketalagan, the Indigenous Peoples of Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan. In Taiwan, along with Ketalagan, nine other distinct Indigenous groups, namely, the Babuza, Hoanya, Kaxabu, Makatao, Papora, Pazeh, Siraya, Taokas, and Tavorlong are yet to get officially recognized and listed under the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP). At the same time, Taiwan has legally recognized 16 Indigenous Peoples, namely the Amis (also Pangcah), Atayal (Also Tayal), Bunun, Kavalan, Paiwan, Puyuma, Rukai, Saisiyat, Sakizaya, Sediq, Thao, Truku, Tsou, Tao (also Yamei), the Kanakanavu and Hla’alua, who together make up 2.42% of approximately 24 million population of Taiwan.
"For millennia, Indigenous technologies have thrived through cultural, communal, and environmental wisdom, from the millpond to the kayak to the rice terrace," said Alejandro Mayoral Baños, Access Now's Executive Director and a member of the Mixtec Indigenous Peoples of Mexico, spearheaded the Indigenous groups in RightsCon since 2018; addressing the opening further added, "This resilience is vital as we confront digital colonization such as unchecked social media companies, Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovation at all costs, ineffective and inconsistent regulation, and weaponized surveillance – amid global conflicts where technology is too often being used and abused at the costs of millions of human lives."
Alejandro Baños’s call to action was echoed throughout the conference, which included over 550 sessions and workshops from digital discrimination to decolonizing the digital world, navigating GeoAI, fostering digital inclusion and resilience in the age of AI, Algorithmic transparency, tech solutions, data extractivist, data protection and privacy, hate speech, internet shutdowns, tools for fighting online hate, cybercrimes among others. Some sessions were dedicated to exploring the impact of technology on Indigenous communities and how they can leverage digital tools to protect their rights and advance their data sovereignty and self-determination.
One key theme during the RightsCon was the importance of Indigenous data sovereignty and the ethical implications of AI. Pyrou Chung, the Director of Knowledge for Development based in Thailand, highlighted Indigenous communities' challenges in realizing their right to own, control, access, and manage the data generated from or about them, particularly in geospatial data and AI. According to Chung, for Indigenous Peoples, data sovereignty is their right to govern data related to their lands, cultures, knowledge systems, and communities.
"Indigenous Peoples have Traditional Ecological Knowledge that they have maintained for generations. An estimate puts 274 terabytes of Earth observation data produced daily on the environment and the knowledge, yet these captured in satellite imagery are not often representative of these communities' understanding of ecological processes, landscapes, and ecosystems. They're deliberately excluded from these systems, and data are not shared with the respective communities but rather privatized.”
Pyrou Chung emphasized the need for Indigenous communities to have control over their data and be involved in developing and implementing AI systems that affect them. She also stressed the importance of incorporating Indigenous knowledge into these systems to ensure they are responsive to the needs and perspectives of Indigenous Peoples. Further, she said, “The AI-governing systems must shift to prioritize Free, Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) and right to self-determination as a driver for the development. This is critical for agreements to access, collect, and publish environmental data of land rights holders. If Indigenous Peoples aren't at the forefront of these systems or engaged in geo-AI systems, then the staff responsible for these systems should be trained and versed in Indigenous data sovereignty frameworks and principles and be able to integrate them into the data lifecycle.”
Another important issue raised at RightsCon was the digital divide and the need to ensure Indigenous communities have access to technology and the internet to use, create, and publish digital media and access and use computers, other electronic devices, and communications networks.
Nohely Guzman, from the Bolivian organization Jasy Renyhe-Anti-Colonial Feminists, spoke about Indigenous communities' challenges in accessing and using technology, particularly in rural areas. "One of the main challenges for Indigenous communities living in rural areas is the absence of digital technologies and online or internet access, and thus, there is a big gap in accessing and skills to use them," Guzman said. "We know that we need to embark on this long-term process of training the younger generation, in this case, youth territorial monitors, and honestly just community members who are constantly relating to their land and who have profound, long, really longstanding knowledge on what's happening, what they need, and how to go about their challenges."
Guzman stressed the importance of providing Indigenous communities with the capacity-building training and resources to use technology and effectively participate in the digital world. She also highlighted the need to listen to Indigenous voices and incorporate their perspectives into developing technology policies and initiatives.
RightsCon provided a crucial platform for Indigenous voices to be heard and for their concerns to be addressed. Although not many, numerous Indigenous speakers who participated shared their experiences and perspectives on a wide range of technology and human rights issues at the conference. The organizers of RightsCon also made a concerted effort to ensure that Indigenous voices were included in the main program and not relegated to side events. This was a significant step forward in recognizing the importance of Indigenous perspectives in the digital rights movement. RightsCon 2025 was a powerful reminder of the importance of including Indigenous voices in the global conversation about technology and human rights. As technology continues to evolve and shape our world, Indigenous communities must not be left behind. The challenges facing Indigenous communities in the digital age are complex and multifaceted. However, by working together and listening to Indigenous voices, we can ensure that technology empowers and uplifts these communities rather than further marginalizing them. Therefore, the RightsCon 2025 left a legacy of greater inclusion, collaboration, and a renewed commitment to upholding the rights of Indigenous Peoples in the digital era.
Alejandro Mayoral Baños, Access Now's Executive Director, stressed in closing, “I want you to keep in mind the principles of resilience, as our sector is facing threats to safeguard human rights in the digital era through different forms of digital colonization, shrinking of multi-stakeholder spaces, used to surveil, censor, and shield. In the face of these threats, I invite you also to draw on the communal, environmental, and cultural protocols embedded in indigenous technologies as a collective responsibility for shaping our digital future.”
