“We are still facing a digital divide, and we, collectively, need to recognise it”

With the pandemic we are all currently experiencing, we have realised that our work as activists depends on a very weak system. A lot has been said, in the past months, about the fact that we are all coming online and adapting to remote work, but in reality, things are not that easy.

Firstly, because despite us living in Europe, we are still facing a digital divide, and we, collectively, need to recognise it. This divide is even stronger when it comes to working with young refugee women or young women with disabilities, who are often unable to use, or experience difficulties in using, technological devices.

But once we have recognised our limitations: what if something like this pandemic happens again? How do we make sure that we maintain a continuous and impactful engagement during such crises? These questions should be addressed not only in our field of work, but also across the entire development sector. In the past months, organisations have tried their best to move most of their work online, but the reality is that a lot of people have been left behind in this system.

If there is something that this pandemic has shown, it is that global solidarity is there, and that we are able to work with and for it. We are able to develop strategies and action plans which are borderless. We are able to adopt a global perspective. Which is amazing! We have shown that we are able to do so and therefore, have really brought our work as activists to another level.

However, this main issue remains: in a connected world like ours, what does it take to make sure that no one is left out of the digital conversation? And then of course, the intergenerational aspect also comes into play: how do the elderly adapt to this digitalised society? Have we been able to support elder women, and elder migrant and refugee women at this level in the past months? The response, unfortunately, is we have not.

When it comes to young women activists, a majority of them is digitally connected. Most have continued, despite the circumstances, to build safe spaces to make sure that they can share their stories, concerns, but also analyses of how the pandemic has affected women’s rights. They have maintained their engagement in youth activism spaces. But a lot of people have still been left behind. And more global solidarity actors need to have this conversation and assessment, looking at what is next for migrants and refugees in terms of digital access, and rights.

A lot has been said about making sure that the measures to counter the pandemic are good for Europeans, about self-isolation, about whether measures are respected by people. But there needs to be a conversation about the freedom and right to access digital spaces, including the right to access information.

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Photo by the organisers of the African Union-European Union Civil Society Seminar on “Ensuring respect for human rights in the context of migration and forced displacement” (15 October 2019, Banjul, The Gambia).