SCiDEV hosted the first Digital Right Talk series in collaboration with Germin Organisation at Tumo Tirana on August 21, 2022, in the framework of the project Tirana Digital Rights Festival as part of the Tirana European Youth Capital 2022 program. The first Digital Right Talk was organized as a joint effort with OriginAl, a program launched by Germin and Global Albanians Foundation to provide a free educational trip for the Albanian Diaspora Youth. SCiDEV brought together young people from Albania, selected through an open call for application, and interested in digital rights with the diaspora youth of the OriginAl program for an intensive half-day interaction on digital rights and experiencing life briefly in Tirana.

About 40 participants from the Albanian Diaspora and 20 young people of the Tirana Digital Right Festival project had the opportunity to learn through three sessions about the concept of digital rights, its legal framework in Albania and the EU, and national and global sensitive data leakage cases. In the first info session hosted by Orkidea Xhaferaj, digital rights advocate, the participants were presented with the concepts of digital rights and digital literacy, as well as several cases of data leakage in Albania. The second info session, hosted by Silva Arapi, a certified data protection officer, was mainly focused on the legal framework of data protection (GDPR) in the EU and its implications on customers and service providers. By the end of these sessions, the participants engaged in group work and brainstorming mixing locals with diaspora youth and facilitated by SCiDEV experts, staff, and interns. Each of the 4 groups presented a short definition of digital rights, the threats we face in a digital world, and means of advocacy to promote digital rights and digital literacy.

The event came to an end with a short introduction of the Digital Security Toolkit – an open platform that aims to offer help to youth with their digital queries and dilemmas, developed by SHARE Foundation, SCiDEV, and Homo Digitalis. The platform is free to use and available in Albania, English, and Serbian.

The “Tirana Digital Rights Festival” project is implemented by SCiDEV and financially supported by the National Youth Congress and the Municipality of Tirana in the framework of the Tirana European Youth Capital 2022 program.

Digital Right Talk 1 – Agenda