{"id":33748,"date":"2026-05-05T11:29:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T09:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=33748"},"modified":"2026-05-05T11:29:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T09:29:53","slug":"zambia-cancels-human-rights-summit","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/zambia-cancels-human-rights-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"Zambia cancels human rights summit\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\">Zambia has abruptly cancelled the world&#8217;s largest global summit on human rights and technology just days before it was set to begin in Lusaka.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">More than 2 600 delegates from across the world, including activists, academics and policy makers were due to attend the RightsCon 2026 conference this week.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The summit was focusing on issues such as digital censorship, artificial intelligence, surveillance and online safety.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">But in a surprise move, the government says the event does not align with what it calls the country&#8217;s &#8220;national values&#8221; and broader public interest.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The organisers &#8220;Access Now&#8221; and human rights groups have condemned the decision as a serious setback for freedom of expression and civic space, warning it reflects a growing pattern of restrictions ahead of Zambia&#8217;s general elections later this year.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8211;Channel Africa&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":33749,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-33748","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Zambia has abruptly cancelled the world's largest global summit","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33750,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33748\/revisions\/33750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=33748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}