37,000+

participants
in 12 years

17,000+

civil society participants

2,000+

government officials

4,000+

private sector participants

Meet a few of the organizations who join us year-after-year

Amazon
Amnesty International
Cisco
Digital Security Lab
Discord
Global Partners Digital
Human Rights Watch
Internews
Meta
Wikimedia
Center for Democracy & Technology Logo
Association for Progressive Communications Logo
Berkman Klein Center for internet & society at Harvard University Logo
CIPESA Logo
Dangerous Speech Project Logo
Freedom House Logo
Open Net Logo
Privacy International Logo
Small Media Logo
The Engine Room Logo

For over a decade, we’ve welcomed leaders from around the world

RightsCon features prominent voices from companies, governments, foundations, think tanks, civil society organizations, universities, and international institutions. Check out a small selection of the experts that joined us throughout the last 12 years.

RightsCon speakers have included

Amandeep Singh Gill

United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology

Timnit Gebru

Founder and Executive Director, Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR)

Clint Smith

Chief Legal Officer, Discord

Jacinda Ardern

Former Prime Minister of New Zealand

Will Cathcart

Head of Whatsapp, Meta

Anne Marie Engtoft Larsen

Tech Ambassador, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Denmark

Kent Walker

President, Global Affairs, Google & Alphabet

Meredith Whittaker

President, Signal

Pedro Vaca Villareal

Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

Nabiha Syed

CEO, The Markup

Epsy Campbell Barr

President, Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, United Nations; Former Vice President of Costa Rica

Brad Smith

President, Microsoft

Irene Khan

United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion

Black and white photo of Paola Vega Castillo

Paola Vega Castillo

Minister, Science, Technology and Telecommunications, Government of Costa Rica

Black and white photo of Erika Cheung

Erika Cheung

Theranos Whistleblower; Executive Director, Ethics in Entrepreneurship

Black and white photo of Emel Mathlouthi

Emel Mathlouthi

Tunisian Musician, Producer, and Activist, “The Tunis Diaries”

Black and white photo of Valeriia Ionan

Valeriia Ionan

Deputy Minister, Ministry of Digital Transformation, Government of Ukraine

Black and white photo of Tawana Petty

Tawana Petty

Director of Community, Algorithmic Justice League

Black and white photo of Samantha Power

Samantha Power

Administrator, United States Agency for International Development

Black and white photo of John Githongo

John Githongo

CEO, Inuka

Black and white photo of Maria Ressa

Maria Ressa

Co-founder & CEO, Rappler; Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Black and white photo of Angela Hession

Angela Hession

Global VP of Trust and Safety, Twitch

Black and white photo of Vint Cerf

Vint Cerf

Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google

Black and white photo of Chelsea Manning

Chelsea Manning

Security and Hardware Optimization Advisor, Nymtech

“The issues that RightsCon addresses deserve leader-level attention … these are some of the most important issues that we could be talking about today.” (2022)

Jacinda Ardern

Former Prime Minister of New Zealand
Mutale Nkonde

“This was my first RightsCon conference and what an experience it was, hosting a conversation about healing, hope and protest was just what I needed during a summer during which Black people were grappling with mass deaths through COVID and evidence that we are still continually hunted and killed by the police. […] I hope this will be the beginning of a long relationship with RightsCon as they think about how anti-racist policies and practices can become part of human rights frames.” (2020)

Mutale Nkonde

CEO AI for the People, Key Constituent of the UN 3C Round Table on AI
Matt Peacock

“RightsCon is the Davos of Digital Rights.” (2017)

Matt Peacock

Group Director of Corporate Affairs at Vodafone Group
Alejandro Mayoral Banos

“RightsCon is an online and offline space to build relationships on the digital rights’ agenda among actors and communities from diverse sectors and geographical locations. It allows people to imagine and strategize in the same space how digital technologies can create better and safer understandings between different societies.” (2019)

Alejandro Mayoral Banos

Executive Director, Indigenous Friends Organization
Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin

“I must say I’m amazed. It’s enormous. It gathers people from the NGOs, academics, private sector – a convergence and divergence of all these people.” (2018)

Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin

Chair and President of the CNIL
Gbénga Sèsan

“I mean where have you been if you haven’t been to RightsCon! This is where you get to do the real work… It’s where you get to meet people who you can mentor, who want to do what you’re doing, where you can meet people who have done what you’re trying to do, who can mentor you, and it’s where you can meet your peers, so you know you’re not the only crazy person who wants to save the world.” (2018)

Gbénga Sèsan

Executive Director, Paradigm Initiative
Bec Hamilton

“Perhaps the most striking, joyous, part of it was being at a conference where diversity in all its forms was essential to its lifeblood – in contrast to most conferences I attend where diversity is too often thought of in terms of checking boxes.”

Bec Hamilton

Assistant Law Professor, American University

Revisit RightsCon Costa Rica

Explore again the best of RightsCon Costa Rica with hundreds of sessions on our summit platform and on our YouTube channel.

Canada
Cisco
Cloudflare
Airbnb
Discord
Duck Duck Go
ICANN
ISOC
Meta
Microsoft
Mozilla
Reddit
SIDA Sweden
Swiss FDFA
Denmark MFA
IDRC

Keep up to date with RightsCon

Have a question about how to join us? Not sure where to start on your RightsCon journey? Get in touch with us at [email protected] to schedule a one-on-one chat with our team.

Subscribe to our newsletter, the RightsCon Rundown, for program updates, speaker announcements, community opportunities, and more.