Human Rights, Science, and Technology Webinar Series
Bangladesh in Transition: Navigating Democratic Reform, Digital Governance, and the Way Forward
Friday, May 16, 2025 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM EDT
Online Location
Watch Recording Here:
Description
In this webinar, we explore Bangladesh’s unfolding political transition, the future of democratic reform, and the urgent challenges and possibilities of digital governance. This conversation brings together legal scholars, policy experts, human rights advocates, and technology governance professionals to examine how Bangladesh can navigate its current crossroads and move toward a more inclusive, rights-based digital and political future. Together, our panelists assess the structural forces behind democratic backsliding and the reforms needed to build a more transparent, equitable, and accountable digital ecosystem.
Panel 1: Democratic Reform, Political Transition & Digital Law and Civil Liberties
This panel discusses the political significance of Bangladesh’s current moment and the implications of emerging legal reforms for civil liberties and digital rights.
Panel 2: Building a Rights-Based Digital Future: Infrastructure, Accountability & Tech Governance
Panelists speak about the infrastructure of digital repression, platform accountability, and the role of foreign tech companies in supporting or undermining rights-based digital governance.
Our Speakers:
Md. Saimum Reza Talukder, Prosecutor (Assistant Attorney General), International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh, Senior Lecturer, School of Law, BRAC University.
Sabhanaz Rashid Diya, Executive Director, Tech Global Institute, and Visiting Policy Fellow, University of Oxford.
Sabhanaz Rashid Diya is the executive director of Tech Global Institute, a tech policy nonprofit for advancing equity of Global Majority communities on the internet. She has advised governments in 20 countries, including leading closed-door briefings with the White House, the U.S. Department of State and Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, multilateral international organizations such the World Bank and the UN, bilateral donors, and a variety of global startups and corporations, on policy and law questions related to global Internet and platform governance, Responsible AI and human rights.
A computational social scientist by training, Diya has over 19 years of experience at the intersection of technology policy, ethics and international development. She was most recently the Head of Public Policy for Bangladesh at Meta, where she engaged policymakers and led on various regulatory and legislative issues, including hate speech, privacy, data protection and the data economy, online harms and algorithmic transparency. She is a senior fellow at Centre of International Governance Innovation and a visiting fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute at University of Oxford.
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Christabel Randolph, Associate Director, Center for AI and Digital Policy.
Christabel oversees the US AI law and policy group at CAIDP, bringing diverse experience from her leadership roles across Asia-Pacific and the Middle East in the corporate sector, private practice, and consulting with organizations like WHO, IDLO. Christabel was a Public Interest Technology Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center, researching and writing on governance and geopolitical considerations of emerging technology. She has featured in AI expert panels at MIT’s EmTech, the National Academies for Sciences, Engineering, & Medicine, the Atlantic Council, Berkeley's CITRIS Policy Lab, and convenes the annual AI and Democratic Values event at CAIDP. An Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Christabel regularly collaborates with global majority organizations and advocates on digital human rights.
Dinah van der Geest , Programme Operations Manager, ARTICLE 19
Dinah van der Geest is the Programme Operations Manager in Global Team Digital at ARTICLE 19. She has been working at the intersection of technology and human rights engaging in multilateral and multistakeholder governance mechanisms to support the adoption of rights-respecting technical policies and standards in Internet infrastructure. She has worked to build evidence on the impacts of Internet infrastructure design, development, and deployment decisions on the human rights of people and communities. She has also worked to strengthen and facilitate the diversity of civil society voices within Internet governance policy decision-making building.
Samaya Anjum, Policy and Communications Fellow, Global Network Initiative.
Samaya Anjum is a journalist and researcher focusing on technology, human rights, and forced migration. She has worked extensively on data protection, press freedom and disinformation within nonprofits, media, and government. Currently, Samaya is a Policy and Communications Fellow at the Global Network Initiative. Samaya holds a degree in Politics and Government from Sciences Po Paris and Trinity College Dublin, and a Masters in Public Policy from Central European University, Vienna.
Moderators:
John G. Dale, Associate Professor, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Director, Movement Engaged Research Hub, Center for Social Science Research, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
Jeba Humayra, PhD Student, Sociology, Graduate Research Assistant, Movement Engaged Research Hub, Center for Social Science Research, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
Organized By:
