As Canada grapples with its leadership moment among middle powers, we must face an inconvenient truth: shifting geopolitics create opportunities, but they also produce conditions for shrinking human rights.
The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) saw this first-hand earlier this month, when RightsCon 2026 — originally planned for May 5 to 8 — was cancelled mere hours before our first delegation member would have boarded her flight to present our research in Lusaka, Zambia.
In its 14-year history, RightsCon has included more than 40,000 individuals from more than 160 countries. In 2026 alone, RightsCon expected to welcome 2,600 in-person attendees and 1,100 virtual participants. Organized by Access Now, this community promotes human rights in the face of technological tools that are reaching farther and deeper into our privacy, freedom of expression and freedom of thought. These tools pose very real threats to vulnerable people and their allies globally. Gathering at RightsCon provides connection, mutual support and solidarity for advocates who are often tired, overworked and facing enormous challenges. This global community is invaluable to the cause of human rights.
Shortly before the event, on April 26, the Government of Zambia publicly endorsed RightsCon. Just days later, however, a Ministry of Information and Media news release announcing the postponement of the event began circulating among participants, with RightsCon organizers publicly stating they hadn’t received official word. On May 1, RightsCon released the full details explaining the cancellation of the event after the Government of Zambia made it impossible to proceed, citing foreign interference.
The impact of the cancellation was felt immediately. CIGI was set to join RightsCon to launch the key results from the second phase of our Supporting Safer Digital Spaces program. This research project offers an unprecedented quantitative look at the gendered impact of online harms and technology-facilitated gender-based violence across 18 countries. Our RightsCon delegation included regional subject matter experts from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America — in addition to quantitative experts and CIGI staff. We planned to build on our first phase of data, launched at RightsCon 2023 in Costa Rica, and leverage the quantitative analysis training we delivered at RightsCon in Taiwan in early 2025. Previous events left us feeling invigorated and grateful to share our investments in evidence with the advocates who would carry that work forward to create meaningful policy change.
Upon hearing the news that RightsCon 2026 was officially cancelled, we were left scrambling to unwind complicated logistics, trying to care for our community of researchers who would now miss this critical opportunity to gather — all while wondering why this happened so suddenly and so last-minute.
We could speculate on a few reasons why the location might have always been risky. The Zambian government criminalizes homosexuality, and RightsCon was set to address LGBTQ+ rights, including through CIGI’s session. But RightsCon had safety plans in place and there had been no sudden shift in recent weeks that would explain this pivot. Likewise, there is an upcoming election in Zambia, so perhaps questions around democratic organizing could be uncomfortable, but again, this isn’t a new development. So, why now?
Prior to the official statement from RightsCon, as CIGI was busy cancelling flights and hotel bookings, two questions lingered in our minds: Could this be connected to RightsCon gathering in Taiwan last year? Could the Government of China somehow be involved?
RightsCon certainly thinks so. The breaking point seems to have been Taiwanese representatives planning to join, which event staff report they attempted to address with the Government of Zambia without success.
The cracks in our eroding international system provide opportunities for powerful states to magnify transnational repression, amplified by new technologies.
The relationship between China and Zambia has indeed been growing stronger, providing China with more leverage over Zambian government decisions. In fact, earlier in April, the Zambian government announced a $1.5 billion deal with a Chinese state-owned company to expand the country’s power capacity. Xinhua also reported a development cooperation agreement signed on April 24. These are real investments that become even more powerful given shrinking foreign assistance budgets globally, especially the closure of the United States Agency for International Development. In fact, a US bilateral agreement with Zambia recently stalled, reportedly because the US government is tying live-saving health assistance to mining and data access.
These are exactly the kinds of real, human trade-offs that create the conditions for transnational repression.
Of course, China is hardly alone in this field. Russia, India and other global and regional powers leverage shifting power balances and technological tools to attack human rights. The cracks in our eroding international system provide opportunities for powerful states to magnify transnational repression, amplified by new technologies. This is, in fact, what RightsCon stands to address.
As a Canadian think tank, CIGI is no stranger to the realities of foreign interference. Canada has suffered many attempts to manipulate our political system, to steal Canadian research and intellectual property, and to threaten new Canadians exercising their political and religious rights on Canadian territory and under the protection of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The implications of Canada’s changing leadership role in this era of geostrategic behaviour extend far beyond trade or even national security. Standing up for middle powers must include protecting our own values — first and foremost, human rights.
