Merrin Muhammed Ashraf

The Global Digital Justice Forum responded to the Joint Questionnaire for CSTD's 20-year review of the World Summit on Information Society implementation. The submission focused on the fact that instead of the vision of "people-centered, inclusive and development oriented" future, the digital era has been driven by increasing exclusions,…

IT for Change responded to the Open Consultation Process on the WSIS Forum organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Our inputs focused on how the WSIS+20 Forum High-Level Event should address questions of the digital and data divide, in particular the critical role of democratic governance of the digital as vital to the…

IT for Change submitted a response to the Zero draft of the Pact for the Future, which was launched on 26 January 2024, as a first step towards the negotiations of the agreement in September 2024 within the Summit of the Future. Engaging with each chapter of the draft of the Pact, our submission emphasized the role of a just and fair digital…

On 13 February 2024, Merrin Muhammed Ashraf represented the Global Digital Justice Forum and IT for Change at a virtual consultation convened by the co-facilitators of the intergovernmental process for drafting a Global Digital Compact, which would be annexed to the Pact for the Future. The goal of the consultation was to allow civil society…

IT for Change submitted an input to the UN Human Rights B-Tech project in response to its call for inputs on gender, digital tech, and the role of business, using the lens of the United Nations Guiding Principles of Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) applied from a gender perspective. In our submission, firstly, we highlighted the important to…

In the May 2023 meeting of the Regulatory Working Group of the Coalition against Online Violence, Malavika Rajkumar and Merrin Muhammed Ashraf presented comments on the 2018 UNHRC Resolution on Violence against Women and Girls in the Digital Contexts, highlighting certain gaps and deficits in the objective and language of the Resolution that…

IT for Change participated in the call for inputs by the UN Special Rapporteur, in order to inform the report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism on online hate speech to 78th session of the General Assembly.

IT for Change's submission highlights how gender intersects with, compounds, and reinforces discrimination…

On 2nd January 2023, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) notified the draft Amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 ('Draft Amendment') in relation to online gaming as well as the due diligence requirements by intermediaries under rule 3(1)(b)(v).…

Continuing our engagement with UNESCO's effort to formulate a set of ‘Guidelines for Regulating Digital Platforms’ to safeguard freedom of expression and access to information, IT for Change provided comments and recommendations on the Draft 2.0 of the Guidelines. We commend the second draft of the Guidelines for recognizing the impact of both…

UNESCO has released its initial draft proposal of the ‘Guidelines on Regulating Digital Platforms: a multistakeholder approach’ (Guidance Document) for inputs and observations. The document is meant to serve as a guidance on the regulation, co-regulation, and self-regulation of digital platforms, “with the aim of…