Help us to "make the connection" between human rights and internet rights

When did you first realise how your freedom of expression or association could be violated online?

When did you first "make the connection" between human rights and internet rights as a women human rights defender?

The "Connect Your Rights campaign" campaign and GenderIT.org is calling for submissions of blogs, poems, digital stories, artwork and other visuals to help others make the connection.

During 2011, the Association for Progressive Communications, in partnership with Violence is not our Culture Campaign and Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition hosted Secure online communications workshops for women human rights defenders in Philippines, Kenya and Costa Rica. These workshops are part of the APC's Connect Your Rights campaign : internet rights are human rights. Everyone has rights, including online! APC is documenting trends, lobbying for internet rights in international forums and training activists on how to use technology securely.

We have started a rolling call for stories/case studies and would particularly like to hear from women human rights defenders and women's rights activists.

We all know how important evidence building is for our advocacy! These stories and case studies will assist us all in advocating for policies which recognise internet rights as human rights.

Where were you when you first "connected your rights"? That is, when did you first realise that your rights are truly inalienable, even online? The Connect your rights! campaign is calling for submissions of blogs, poems, digital stories, artwork and other visuals to help others make the connection.

Do you have a story you'd like to share? Maybe it was the first blocked web page you encountered; or the time you received obviously filtered results from a search engine; or perhaps you or someone you know have had to deal with questionable privacy policies on a social networking site.

We would like to hear **your** stories as women human rights defenders and women's rights activists.

Please send your blogs, images, videos or other submissions to grady@apc.org with the heading "Make the connection"

This is a rolling call with the first submissions due 15 December 2011 and then again January 31st 2012 and February 28th 2012.

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"Hand mapping" photo by APC WNSP. The hand mapping exercise was used during a series of digital storytelling workshops organized by the APC WNSP for women's rights activists across the world. The exercise allows them to explore hands as representations of safety or fear and helps them map the links between security and technology.