Participants in the Decolonising Process

Participants in the Decolonising Process

Illustration of hands touching a tablet with a non-Eurocentric map onscreen

The Digital Freedom Fund and its partner European Digital Rights (EDRi) initiated a decolonising process for the digital rights field in 2021. The process has now continued in a new entity Weaving Liberation, hosted by Digital Freedom Fund.

On this page, you can meet the talented set of people that participated in designing and driving forward this collaborative, multi-year process. This process included more than 30 people and roughly 24 organisations working on racial and social justice issues, as well as organisations from the current digital rights field and funders.

Picture of Alejandro Moledo
Alejandro Moledo

Alejandro leads and coordinates the European Disability Forum’s advocacy and policy work at EU level, and supports the work of the European Parliament Disability Intergroup. Alejandro’s work has included developing policy positions and recommendations regarding political participation of persons with disabilities, accessible information and communication technologies, assistive technologies and different standardisation activities.

Picture of Alexandra Hache
Alexandra Hache

Alexandra holds a degree in sociology and a PhD in economics. She is a cyberfeminist
working in the area of gender and tech and technological sovereignty initiatives. She has worked at DDP since 2018, coordinating the area of Rapid Response Networks and the Gender Equity and Diversity Inclusion strategy.

Picture of Ali Khan
Ali Khan

Ali is a programme officer in OSF’s Europe & Eurasia programme on racial justice. Prior to joining OSF, Ali worked at the European Foundation Centre, EUROCITIES and he was also involved in several local initiatives in Antwerp on the rights of racialised young people as both a volunteer and a steering group member.

Picture of Alyna C. Smith
Alyna C. Smith

Alyna is a senior advocacy officer at PICUM (the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants), where her work focuses on access to justice and healthcare for undocumented migrants.

Picture of Anasuya Sengupta
Anasuya Sengupta

Anasuya Sengupta is co-director and co-founder of Whose Knowledge?, a global campaign to centre the knowledges of marginalised communities (the majority of the world) online. She is the former Chief Grantmaking Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation.

Picture of Anna-Dorothea Grass
Anna-Dorothea Grass

Anna-Dorothea is a senior project manager with the Inequalities Team at the Robert Bosch Stiftung. She is responsible for the program “Reducing Inequalities through Intersectional Practice” and developed the thematic focus on the intersection of inequalities and technological change. Before joining the foundation in 2015, Anna-Dorothea worked at the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin on international cultural exchange.

Picture of Arthur Steiner
Arthur Steiner

Arthur is an art historian who is passionate about the role of arts and digital tech in tackling 21st century challenges. He has led various programmes for Hivos and is co-founder of Digital Earth, a fellowship program which aims to radically shift and reimagine the narrative of our digital futures.

Picture of Asli Telli
Asli Telli

Asli is a researcher of media, communications and social informatics. She is interested in cross-disciplinary research on the social and civic impact of transmedia, as well as new media literacy, cybercultures, social media-facilitated activism, and networked society informatics. She is a founding member of Alternatif Bilisim, a digital rights organization based in Turkey.

Picture of Azar
Azar

Azar is a queer feminist activist and one of the co-founders of LGBTIQ+ Association Okvir and Kvir arhiv (Queer Archive) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They are passionate about queer spaces of love, memory, resistance, and healing.

Picture of Carine Marzin
Carine Marzin

Carine is a digital rights policy practitioner and campaigner currently working in the digital accessibility field. She also has a particular interest in privacy policy and preventing discrimination that arises from artificial intelligence, automated decision-making and emerging technologies.

Picture of Chenai Chair
Chenai Chair

Chenai is the Special Advisor on Africa Innovation Mradi at Mozilla Foundation. Her work includes supporting innovation projects such Common Voice African Languages fellows and awardees. She is an expert on the intersection of digital technology and gender having built her expertise through research and policy development.

Picture of Chris Jones
Chris Jones

Chris has been working for Statewatch since 2010, and in September 2020 was appointed director. He specialises in issues relating to policing, migration, security technologies and privacy and data protection. He has been involved in campaigns and movements for refugee rights, anti-militarism, community organising and the right to land.

Picture of Cianán Russell
Cianán Russell

Cianán Russell is a senior policy officer at ILGA-Europe based in Brussels, Belgium. They work on policy and advocacy relating to trans, intersex, health, education, and the anti-gender movement at the Council of Europe and the European Union. Cianán is also the Director of Trans Survivors Network.

Picture of Danilo Krivokapić
Danilo Krivokapić

Danilo is director of SHARE Foundation, a Belgrade-based digital rights organisation. A lawyer by education, his fields of work and expertise include data protection, the impact of data-driven business models on privacy, and legal standards for information security and cybercrime. He is a founder of the initiative #hiljadekamera (thousands of cameras).

Picture of Eleftherios Chelioudakis
Eleftherios Chelioudakis

Eleftherios is one of the co-founders of the Greek civil society organisation Homo Digitalis. He is a tech lawyer with an academic background in digital humanities. Eleftherios works pro bono for Homo Digitalis on research activities and legal actions related to data protection, privacy and cybersecurity.

Picture of Esra Özkan
Esra Özkan

Esra works as the Co-Director of Justice, Equity and Technology Table, a space of convening to build visions and strategies to address the impacts of data-driven policing on racialised communities throughout Europe. She has also been active in a variety of grassroots groups and civil society organisations striving toward social and environmental justice in Turkey and Belgium.

Picture of Jennifer Kamau
Jennifer Kamau

Jennifer is a Berlin-based activist and researcher. In 2012, she co-founded International Women* Space, an anti-racist, feminist collective for women of all backgrounds, but especially refugees and migrants.

Picture of Juliana Wahlgren
Juliana Wahlgren

Juliana works at ENAR as an Senior Advocacy Officer since 2006. With strong expertise on gender-based violence, Juliana is founder of Revibra Europe, a network of legal experts and psychologists providing support to Brazilian womxn victims of domestic violence and anti-migrant racism across Europe. She was recently appointed to the EC Expert Group on Migration, Integration and Asylum.

Picture of Karisia Gichuke
Karisia Gichuke

Karisia is a team manager at Open Society Foundations (OSF) within the Europe and Eurasia Programme. Prior to this, she was the East Africa programme officer at the Bernard van Leer Foundation, and has worked for the City Bridge Trust and The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.

Picture of Luca Stevenson
Luca Stevenson

Luca Stevenson is the coordinator of the International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe and a sex workers' rights activist.

Picture of Mukasa
Mukasa

Mukasa is a Senior Program Officer with the International Trans Fund (ITF). Since 2017, he has managed the global trans grants portfolio, engaged in community outreach and conducted capacity building for trans groups. Mukasa previously worked at the Refugee Law Project as Legal Officer of the Gender and Sexuality Program.

Picture of Myriam Douo
Myriam Douo

Myriam is a racial, climate and social justice activist. She believes all struggles are linked and that we need to tackle the root causes of the injustices we witness in this world, and build up a system that works for us all.

Picture of Nadia Benaissa
Nadia Benaissa

Nadia works as a researcher and policy officer at Bits of Freedom, focusing on GDPR and AI. She has a legal background. In her spare time, she has served as a board member at several foundations that work to challenge social and racial injustice.

Picture of Nakeema Stefflbauer
Nakeema Stefflbauer

Nakeema is a senior tech digitalisation executive, an entrepreneur, an angel investor, and an advocate for social impact and sustainability in AI and venture funding. She is the founder and CEO of FrauenLoop. She provides impact/ESG advisory, strategic consulting, research and speaking.

Picture of Raegan MacDonald
Raegan MacDonald

Raegan is Director of Public Policy at Mozilla. Before that, she worked at Access Now and before that, at European Digital Rights (EDRi). She is a board member of DFF and EDRi and did her master's in Global Studies at Leipzig University and the University of Vienna.

Picture of Roxanna-Lorraine Witt
Roxanna-Lorraine Witt

Roxanna is director of save space e.V. and co-founder of Romblog Online Academy. Her work includes research on radicalisation in digital environments and gaming communities, as well as prevention and education work. She has worked as a consultant on human rights and digitalisation for multiple international organisations.

Picture of Salmana Ahmed
Salmana Ahmed

Salmana has been working at Luminate over the past five years, focusing on growing and supporting the Data & Digital Rights portfolio globally. She also represents Luminate in a working group, comprising representatives of several entities in The Omidyar Group, that focuses on issues of equity and the rights and dignity of marginalised communities.

Picture of Seyi Akiwowo
Seyi Akiwowo

Seyi is the founder and executive director of Glitch, a UK Charity dedicated to ending online abuse and championing digital citizenship. In 2020, George Washington University appointed her Knight Fellow of the Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics.

Picture of Simona Mursec
Simona Mursec

Simona is the president of Ljubljana Pride Association and a strong advocate for LGBTIQ+ rights in Slovenia. She has been working towards intersectional and anti-racist approaches in the LGBTIQ+ community. She is the author and editor of several pedagogical publications and research papers in the area of LGBTIQ+ youth, hate speech transformation, and inclusive organisations.

Picture of Vidushi Marda
Vidushi Marda

Vidushi is an Indian lawyer and researcher working on the societal implications of AI. She is a senior programme officer at ARTICLE 19 where she leads global engagement and research on the human rights implications of machine learning. She is also a member of the Expert Group on Governance of Data and AI at United Nations Global Pulse.

Picture of Violeta Ligrayen Yañez
Violeta Ligrayen Yañez

Violeta is a community organiser, activist and facilitator. She works at the intersections of feminism, anti-racism and queer issues and has extensive experience in organising that centres Queer and Trans* communities of colour. Violeta works as an independent consultant, committed to supporting grassroots movements with cultivating accountability, transformative leadership and intersectional praxis.

Picture of Willem Lenders
Willem Lenders

Willem works as a programme officer at the Democracy and Media Foundation (SDM) in Amsterdam, a grantmaking organisation that invests in a pluriform media landscape and inclusive, democratic rule of law. His portfolio includes journalistic infrastructure, digital rights and LGBTQIA+ representation and emancipation.

Picture of Yassine Boubout
Yassine Boubout

Yassine is a human rights activist based in Belgium. His main field is policing and international humanitarian law. He provides legal advice to different NGOs and other organisations working on human rights and law enforcement. As an activist, he also works in the field, providing legal support to victims of police violence.

Picture of  Asja Lazarević
Asja Lazarević

Asja works at SHARE Foundation as a Project Manager. She has a background in Sociology and Gender Studies, and is currently a PhD student at the University of Belgrade.

Picture of  Inés Binder
Inés Binder

Inés is a Latin American social scientist and hackfeminist working in feminist infrastructure initiatives and feminist helplines supporting people who face digital gender-based violence. Currently, Inés is Digital Defenders Partnership's Communication Officer, where she is also involved in implementing its Gender Equity and Diversity Inclusion strategy

Picture of  Gabriela de Oliveira
Gabriela de Oliveira

Gabriela leads policy, research and campaigns work at Glitch, a UK charity dedicated to ending online abuse and championing digital citizenship. Her work focusses on the intersection of gender based violence, digital rights and antiracism. She is passionate about participatory, feminist and community based approaches to this work.

Picture of Alejandro Moledo
Alejandro Moledo

Alejandro leads and coordinates the European Disability Forum’s advocacy and policy work at EU level, and supports the work of the European Parliament Disability Intergroup. Alejandro’s work has included developing policy positions and recommendations regarding political participation of persons with disabilities, accessible information and communication technologies, assistive technologies and different standardisation activities.

Picture of Alexandra Hache
Alexandra Hache

Alexandra holds a degree in sociology and a PhD in economics. She is a cyberfeminist
working in the area of gender and tech and technological sovereignty initiatives. She has worked at DDP since 2018, coordinating the area of Rapid Response Networks and the Gender Equity and Diversity Inclusion strategy.

Picture of Ali Khan
Ali Khan

Ali is a programme officer in OSF’s Europe & Eurasia programme on racial justice. Prior to joining OSF, Ali worked at the European Foundation Centre, EUROCITIES and he was also involved in several local initiatives in Antwerp on the rights of racialised young people as both a volunteer and a steering group member.

Picture of Alyna C. Smith
Alyna C. Smith

Alyna is a senior advocacy officer at PICUM (the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants), where her work focuses on access to justice and healthcare for undocumented migrants.

Picture of Anasuya Sengupta
Anasuya Sengupta

Anasuya Sengupta is co-director and co-founder of Whose Knowledge?, a global campaign to centre the knowledges of marginalised communities (the majority of the world) online. She is the former Chief Grantmaking Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation.

Picture of Anna-Dorothea Grass
Anna-Dorothea Grass

Anna-Dorothea is a senior project manager with the Inequalities Team at the Robert Bosch Stiftung. She is responsible for the program “Reducing Inequalities through Intersectional Practice” and developed the thematic focus on the intersection of inequalities and technological change. Before joining the foundation in 2015, Anna-Dorothea worked at the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin on international cultural exchange.

Picture of Arthur Steiner
Arthur Steiner

Arthur is an art historian who is passionate about the role of arts and digital tech in tackling 21st century challenges. He has led various programmes for Hivos and is co-founder of Digital Earth, a fellowship program which aims to radically shift and reimagine the narrative of our digital futures.

Picture of Asli Telli
Asli Telli

Asli is a researcher of media, communications and social informatics. She is interested in cross-disciplinary research on the social and civic impact of transmedia, as well as new media literacy, cybercultures, social media-facilitated activism, and networked society informatics. She is a founding member of Alternatif Bilisim, a digital rights organization based in Turkey.

Picture of Azar
Azar

Azar is a queer feminist activist and one of the co-founders of LGBTIQ+ Association Okvir and Kvir arhiv (Queer Archive) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They are passionate about queer spaces of love, memory, resistance, and healing.

Picture of Carine Marzin
Carine Marzin

Carine is a digital rights policy practitioner and campaigner currently working in the digital accessibility field. She also has a particular interest in privacy policy and preventing discrimination that arises from artificial intelligence, automated decision-making and emerging technologies.

Picture of Chenai Chair
Chenai Chair

Chenai is the Special Advisor on Africa Innovation Mradi at Mozilla Foundation. Her work includes supporting innovation projects such Common Voice African Languages fellows and awardees. She is an expert on the intersection of digital technology and gender having built her expertise through research and policy development.

Picture of Chris Jones
Chris Jones

Chris has been working for Statewatch since 2010, and in September 2020 was appointed director. He specialises in issues relating to policing, migration, security technologies and privacy and data protection. He has been involved in campaigns and movements for refugee rights, anti-militarism, community organising and the right to land.

Picture of Cianán Russell
Cianán Russell

Cianán Russell is a senior policy officer at ILGA-Europe based in Brussels, Belgium. They work on policy and advocacy relating to trans, intersex, health, education, and the anti-gender movement at the Council of Europe and the European Union. Cianán is also the Director of Trans Survivors Network.

Picture of Danilo Krivokapić
Danilo Krivokapić

Danilo is director of SHARE Foundation, a Belgrade-based digital rights organisation. A lawyer by education, his fields of work and expertise include data protection, the impact of data-driven business models on privacy, and legal standards for information security and cybercrime. He is a founder of the initiative #hiljadekamera (thousands of cameras).

Picture of Eleftherios Chelioudakis
Eleftherios Chelioudakis

Eleftherios is one of the co-founders of the Greek civil society organisation Homo Digitalis. He is a tech lawyer with an academic background in digital humanities. Eleftherios works pro bono for Homo Digitalis on research activities and legal actions related to data protection, privacy and cybersecurity.

Picture of Esra Özkan
Esra Özkan

Esra works as the Co-Director of Justice, Equity and Technology Table, a space of convening to build visions and strategies to address the impacts of data-driven policing on racialised communities throughout Europe. She has also been active in a variety of grassroots groups and civil society organisations striving toward social and environmental justice in Turkey and Belgium.

Picture of Jennifer Kamau
Jennifer Kamau

Jennifer is a Berlin-based activist and researcher. In 2012, she co-founded International Women* Space, an anti-racist, feminist collective for women of all backgrounds, but especially refugees and migrants.

Picture of Juliana Wahlgren
Juliana Wahlgren

Juliana works at ENAR as an Senior Advocacy Officer since 2006. With strong expertise on gender-based violence, Juliana is founder of Revibra Europe, a network of legal experts and psychologists providing support to Brazilian womxn victims of domestic violence and anti-migrant racism across Europe. She was recently appointed to the EC Expert Group on Migration, Integration and Asylum.

Picture of Karisia Gichuke
Karisia Gichuke

Karisia is a team manager at Open Society Foundations (OSF) within the Europe and Eurasia Programme. Prior to this, she was the East Africa programme officer at the Bernard van Leer Foundation, and has worked for the City Bridge Trust and The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.

Picture of Luca Stevenson
Luca Stevenson

Luca Stevenson is the coordinator of the International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe and a sex workers' rights activist.

Picture of Mukasa
Mukasa

Mukasa is a Senior Program Officer with the International Trans Fund (ITF). Since 2017, he has managed the global trans grants portfolio, engaged in community outreach and conducted capacity building for trans groups. Mukasa previously worked at the Refugee Law Project as Legal Officer of the Gender and Sexuality Program.

Picture of Myriam Douo
Myriam Douo

Myriam is a racial, climate and social justice activist. She believes all struggles are linked and that we need to tackle the root causes of the injustices we witness in this world, and build up a system that works for us all.

Picture of Nadia Benaissa
Nadia Benaissa

Nadia works as a researcher and policy officer at Bits of Freedom, focusing on GDPR and AI. She has a legal background. In her spare time, she has served as a board member at several foundations that work to challenge social and racial injustice.

Picture of Nakeema Stefflbauer
Nakeema Stefflbauer

Nakeema is a senior tech digitalisation executive, an entrepreneur, an angel investor, and an advocate for social impact and sustainability in AI and venture funding. She is the founder and CEO of FrauenLoop. She provides impact/ESG advisory, strategic consulting, research and speaking.

Picture of Raegan MacDonald
Raegan MacDonald

Raegan is Director of Public Policy at Mozilla. Before that, she worked at Access Now and before that, at European Digital Rights (EDRi). She is a board member of DFF and EDRi and did her master's in Global Studies at Leipzig University and the University of Vienna.

Picture of Roxanna-Lorraine Witt
Roxanna-Lorraine Witt

Roxanna is director of save space e.V. and co-founder of Romblog Online Academy. Her work includes research on radicalisation in digital environments and gaming communities, as well as prevention and education work. She has worked as a consultant on human rights and digitalisation for multiple international organisations.

Picture of Salmana Ahmed
Salmana Ahmed

Salmana has been working at Luminate over the past five years, focusing on growing and supporting the Data & Digital Rights portfolio globally. She also represents Luminate in a working group, comprising representatives of several entities in The Omidyar Group, that focuses on issues of equity and the rights and dignity of marginalised communities.

Picture of Seyi Akiwowo
Seyi Akiwowo

Seyi is the founder and executive director of Glitch, a UK Charity dedicated to ending online abuse and championing digital citizenship. In 2020, George Washington University appointed her Knight Fellow of the Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics.

Picture of Simona Mursec
Simona Mursec

Simona is the president of Ljubljana Pride Association and a strong advocate for LGBTIQ+ rights in Slovenia. She has been working towards intersectional and anti-racist approaches in the LGBTIQ+ community. She is the author and editor of several pedagogical publications and research papers in the area of LGBTIQ+ youth, hate speech transformation, and inclusive organisations.

Picture of Vidushi Marda
Vidushi Marda

Vidushi is an Indian lawyer and researcher working on the societal implications of AI. She is a senior programme officer at ARTICLE 19 where she leads global engagement and research on the human rights implications of machine learning. She is also a member of the Expert Group on Governance of Data and AI at United Nations Global Pulse.

Picture of Violeta Ligrayen Yañez
Violeta Ligrayen Yañez

Violeta is a community organiser, activist and facilitator. She works at the intersections of feminism, anti-racism and queer issues and has extensive experience in organising that centres Queer and Trans* communities of colour. Violeta works as an independent consultant, committed to supporting grassroots movements with cultivating accountability, transformative leadership and intersectional praxis.

Picture of Willem Lenders
Willem Lenders

Willem works as a programme officer at the Democracy and Media Foundation (SDM) in Amsterdam, a grantmaking organisation that invests in a pluriform media landscape and inclusive, democratic rule of law. His portfolio includes journalistic infrastructure, digital rights and LGBTQIA+ representation and emancipation.

Picture of Yassine Boubout
Yassine Boubout

Yassine is a human rights activist based in Belgium. His main field is policing and international humanitarian law. He provides legal advice to different NGOs and other organisations working on human rights and law enforcement. As an activist, he also works in the field, providing legal support to victims of police violence.

Picture of Asja Lazarević
Asja Lazarević

Asja is a researcher with a background in Sociology and Gender Studies whose interests lie at the intersection between technology and social justice. Currently, she works for Aspiration Tech as a Project Assistant, and is pursuing PhD studies at the University of Belgrade.

Picture of Inés Binder
Inés Binder

Inés is a Latin American social scientist and hackfeminist working in feminist infrastructure initiatives and feminist helplines supporting people who face digital gender-based violence. Currently, Inés is Digital Defenders Partnership's Communication Officer, where she is also involved in implementing its Gender Equity and Diversity Inclusion strategy

Picture of Gabriela de Oliveira
Gabriela de Oliveira

Gabriela leads policy, research and campaigns work at Glitch, a UK charity dedicated to ending online abuse and championing digital citizenship. Her work focusses on the intersection of gender based violence, digital rights and antiracism. She is passionate about participatory, feminist and community based approaches to this work.