At an event marking ECOWAS’s 50th anniversary, legal expert Priscilla Ankut urged member states to revise the 2005 ECOWAS gender policy. She called for stronger justice reforms, improved accountability, and greater investment in women’s economic empowerment. Speakers also highlighted gaps in access to justice and the need for broader public education on rights.
A group of 127 civil society organisations and trade unions has warned that the European Commission’s planned Digital Omnibus package could trigger the largest rollback of digital rights in EU history. In a joint statement, they say the proposals would weaken the GDPR, ePrivacy rules and the AI Act under the guise of technical simplification, opening the door to wider tracking, less accountable AI systems and reduced data protection, and urge the Commission to halt the process and uphold existing safeguards.
The publication sets out a structured methodology based on recognised risk-management standards, linking potential data-protection harms to each stage of the AI lifecycle. It offers practical measures to address fairness, accuracy, security and explainability, and provides technical tools to help controllers ensure compliance with fundamental-rights obligations when deploying or procuring AI.
The programme offers practical instruction for judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and legal practitioners on how to identify and handle SLAPPs in line with European and international standards. It is built on recent legal frameworks, including Council of Europe Recommendation CM/Rec(2024)2 and the EU’s 2024/1069 Directive, both of which set clear expectations for protecting individuals engaged in public participation from abusive legal tactics.
The Forum will produce practical guidance for DNS operators, cloud providers, and online platforms to improve network-layer, e-mail, and routing security. Applications are open until 12 December 2025, ahead of the Forum’s first meeting in January 2026.
Together, they outline a comprehensive plan to safeguard elections, support civil society, and counter the spread of disinformation.
OpenAI is pushing back against a request from The New York Times for access to roughly 20 million ChatGPT conversations, warning that releasing such a dataset could expose sensitive user information and undermine public trust.
The Gigabit Infrastructure Act has entered into force, introducing new EU-wide rules to cut costs, simplify permits and accelerate the rollout of fibre and 5G networks. The legislation aims to boost Europe’s digital readiness by improving infrastructure sharing, coordinating civil works and ensuring new and renovated buildings are equipped for high-speed connectivity.
noyb, EDRi, and ICCL have jointly sent an open letter to the European Commission warning that the proposed Digital Omnibus package risks weakening protections in the GDPR, ePrivacy Directive, and AI Act. The groups argue that key concepts may be redefined in ways that enable broader data exploitation while reducing oversight. They urge the Commission to withdraw deregulatory measures and conduct a full, transparent review before pursuing legislative changes.
The new EU-Switzerland agreement opens full participation in Horizon Europe and Digital Europe.
Civil Society Alliances for Digital Empowerment (CADE) is a project co-funded by the European Union.
