University of Pretoria 2022 Post-Doctoral Fellowship on the Right to Privacy in Africa

Despite the omission of the right to privacy from the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter), the African Union’s human rights system has made efforts to protect the right. For example, when the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in 2019 revised the Declaration of Principles of Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa, it made elaborate provisions on how States must protect not only the right to privacy but also its other aspects in the digital age like communication surveillance and protection of personal information. This shows that the right to privacy, whether offline or online, is not alien to the African system and in particular, its human rights system. In the context of the digital age, the various aspects of privacy constantly become more complex as a result of digital technologies. For example, frontier technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoTs), now have huge impacts on the collection and use of personal information. Governments also have more access to personal information of private citizens just as businesses are also beginning to drive their objectives solely by drawing predictive analytics from vast amounts of data. More than ever before, there is a need to have comprehensive data governance systems that not only define responsibilities for various stakeholders but also provide avenues for effective redress mechanisms for various human rights violations. These developments call for the right to privacy to be rethought and repositioned – also in Africa. These factors point to the need to not only rethink approaches to regulation of personal information within the African human rights system, but also to conduct rigorous and independent research that can lead to impactful policy interventions in many of the areas that privacy and data protection intersect with. Responsibilities The post-doctoral fellow will be hosted by the Expression, Information and Digital Rights Unit of the Centre. The major responsibilities of the fellow are to: a. Carry out research in areas that may intersect with the right to privacy and data protection especially in the digital age within the African context. Such areas may include: ? Operationalisation of national legal frameworks ? Communication surveillance ? Biometrics ? Governments’ access to personal information ? Businesses, privacy and personal information ? Elections ? Socio-economic rights ? Proliferation of surveillance technology and international law International trade and surveillance equipment ? African human rights institutions ? Public policy formation and development ? Gender equity ? Minority groups b. Work together with major stakeholders within the African Union’s human rights system on the promotion of the right to privacy to produce research-backed policy formation. c. Produce a direct, measurable and impactful output before the end of the fellowship on the right to privacy in the digital age in Africa. d. Collaborate to carry out a series of activities like stakeholder convenings, workshops or seminars that could lead to a book, a larger research workshop or collaboration with specific institutions within the African human rights system on a specific intersecting aspect of the right to privacy in the digital age. e. Contribute to reports from donors with respect to the project. f. Play a leadership/managerial role in the Expression, Information and Digital Rights Unit. Take on any other responsibilities as may be determined by the Director of the Centre.