48. Alejandro Mayoral Baños on RightsCon 2025 (Access Now)

Feb 7, 2025

Alejandro Mayoral Baños, Executive Director of Access Now and a leader in indigenous rights advocacy, shares insights on the upcoming RightsCon 2025 in Taipei. He discusses the pressing issues of digital authoritarianism, data governance, and AI's impact on human rights. Baños reflects on the shift from traditional resource extraction to a data-driven focus and emphasizes the importance of collaboration among civic organizations. His journey highlights the significance of indigenous data sovereignty and the need for ethical digital practices to protect marginalized communities.

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Intro

00:00 • 2min

RightsCon 2025: Focus on Digital Human Rights

01:33 • 7min

The New Narrative of Data as a Resource

08:13 • 3min

Navigating Digital Rights at RightsCon

11:22 • 14min

Navigating Challenges in Civic Society

25:31 • 6min

Journey of Indigenous Advocacy and Digital Rights

31:47 • 20min

Anticipating RightsCon 2025 and Future Initiatives

51:50 • 3min

Alejandro Mayoral Baños is the Executive Director of Access Now, an international NGO focusing on digital human rights.

Access Now is the organizer of RightsCon - world’s largest digital human rights summit. The 2025 edition is set to take place in Taipei from February 24 to 27, 2025, where more than 550 sessions are expected to be staged.

Baños talks to Ghost Island Media about digital authoritarianism, data governance, and artificial intelligence.

Prior to his role at Access Now, Baños has been a life-long leader in advocacy and research on indigenous rights and digital development. He gives advice to CSO on navigating new challenges, finding new financial sustainability, and the importance of networking.

This interview was conducted on January 22, 2025. Impact of the U.S. President Trump’s executive orders on the freezing of foreign assistance was not discussed.

Baños’s grew up in Mexico as a member of the Mixtec indigenous people and is now based in Canada. In 2015 he founded the Indigenous Friends Association to bridge the gap between indigenous communities and digital technologies. He has been a Ashoka Fellow for his work as a social entrepreneur. In 2020 he was named a Toronto Community Champion by CBC.

On-line sessions for RightsCon are available for those who cannot come to Taiwan. Register: https://www.rightscon.org/registration/

Resources Baños mentioned in the interview:

Indigenous Data Sovereignty: CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance: https://www.gida-global.org/care#:~:text=CARE%20Principles%20for%20Indigenous%20Data%20Governance,-The%20current%20movement&text=Existing%20principles%20within%20the%20open,power%20differentials%20and%20historical%20contexts.

Approaches to create AI Models for the Indigenous - Indigenous Protocol and Artificial Intelligence Working Group: https://www.indigenous-ai.net/

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