Digital rights in the Caribbean
Digital rights—human rights in relation to digital technologies—present particular challenges in the Caribbean countries, due to its geographies, political context, social inequalities and cultural diversity. While they face the same problem of digital divides as other regions, for islands the impacts of not accessing or understanding digital technologies can have particularly harmful consequences. Similar concerns could be found in terms of gender-based violence online, a global problem encompassing psychological, physical, emotional and sexual violence. This affects more acutely girls and young women and brings about special concerns within the Caribbean. However, there are other topics which are utmost problematic because of the history and type of applicable law system in countries from this region, such as in the case of digital identity and internet shutdowns. Despite variations across Caribbean countries, issues happening in one country can be replicated within the region or can affect people living in other countries. Digital ID Jamaica There have been two attempts to implement the National Identification System (NIDS) bill in Jamaica. The first one was proposed in 2017 and dropped in 2019, when the Court indicated that the bill was being unjustifiably breaching Jamaicans' rights to privacy and equality, among others. In 2020, a