Like much of the rest of the world, Namibia too came under a total economic and social shutdown, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Cracks within the education system would soon be exposed by COVID-19, and the detrimental effects they pose to the right to development and access to knowledge, as set out in Principle 7 of the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms, would become apparent.

Freedom of expression remains Southern Africa’s most violated online right. Advocacy for the respect, recognition and promotion of freedom of expression online has been marked as a priority for digital rights activists in the region. Southern African members of the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms (AfDec) Coalition, drawn from Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, noted this during a strategy-networking meeting held in Windhoek, Namibia on 21 September 2019.