On 7-9 June 2022, APTN partners from Hetura in Papua New Guinea, My Girls Club in Samoa, and The Haus in Fiji gathered to participate in a hybrid workshop on digital safety and security. In total, 30 participants joined the 3-day workshop to learn more about digital security and discuss the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, internet and digital rights and the human rights movement.
Body & Data, an organization that aims to expand the discourse and accessibility around digital rights and internet freedom led the workshop. The Digital Security Workshop is one of the major strategic interventions Body & Data leads under their capacity-building programme to ensure access and safer engagement of people in the online space. The objective of the workshop was to enhance the participants’ knowledge about digital rights and empower trans communities in the Pacific on how to safely use common digital security tools and strategies to ensure a secure presence in the online space.
Over three days of the workshop conversations occurred about data privacy and surveillance, freedom of expression and association, and exercising agency and autonomy in technological and online spaces. Participants from Fiji presented a case study of their experience providing civil society engagement with Fiji legislature to establish the Online Safety Commission to look into online safety engagement and include a pathway for gender-based violence. The workshop also included hands-on activities where participants explored the setting and safety options on their phones and most-used applications.
We are very grateful for this opportunity to work with trans and gender-diverse people in Samoa and Fiji. We look forward to more collaboration in the future!