Ghana’s Minister for Communications, Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful (MP), has confirmed that the Chairmanship of the Freedom Online Coalition (FOC) has been passed to Ghana and that she would be representing Ghana in the position.
Giving further details, she said: “The FOC’s core agenda is supporting Internet freedom and protecting fundamental human rights. Ghana’s interest and commitment lies in engaging in these areas by providing a global leadership and perspective on the key challenges the FOC needs to address.”
She said Ghana looks forward to working with the FOC Friends of the Chair and the entire Coalition to protect human rights online worldwide especially as most countries in the Global South scale up digitalization initiatives.
Ghana’s Chairmanship of the Freedom Online Coalition followed its joining of the Friends of the Chair Group at the beginning of the year. It will host the Eighth Annual Freedom Online conference.
It is the third African country to Chair the Coalition and will be taking over from Germany which was the FOC Chair in 2018.
The FOC also expressed delight that the Chair is once again a Member from the global South, which, it said will considerably help to promote awareness of Internet freedom issues amongst global South stakeholders and add diverse perspectives on Internet freedom and human rights online.
The FOC Member states also unanimously welcome Ghana as the incoming Chair and expressed their support for the next Annual Freedom Online Conference to be held in Ghana in the forthcoming year.
The Chairmanship of the Coalition rotates among Member states on an annual basis, and has been previously held by the Netherlands, Kenya, Tunisia, Estonia, Mongolia, Costa Rica and Germany.
