Change Makers The result is that many such instruments tend to invade privacy, repress freedom of expression online, and violate other rights, such as the right to a fair hearing as the instruments often impose sanctions to punish certain types of behaviour without the requirement for due process, where such persons should be first tried and convicted by appropriate Courts of Law before being sanctioned. It is imperative that representatives of civil society organizations and ordinary citizens empower themselves with the knowledge to participate in policy discussions and engage at all stages of policy and legislative processes to ensure that any framework put in place or being proposed is consistent with International law principles, norms and standards; and take proactive measures in the policy arena to protect the online environment as well as to ensure the protection of human rights online. How can we build trust, promote partnership, and enhance regional collaboration among different African stakeholders in the Internet governance ecosystem, including governments, inter-governmental bodies, civil society, industry, media, and academia? We need to build partnerships across stakeholder groups and national borders, particularly leveraging regional and sub-regional bodies and processes. Civil society actors should support legitimate governmental processes aimed at combating criminal activities online and lend their expertise to such initiatives to ensure that the measures respect human rights. Civil society actors can also help to build public support for such initiatives, explain such policies and measures to citizens, monitor the implementation of policies and legislation, and create mechanisms for getting feedback from citizens or members of the public about the impact or effectiveness of such measures and channel such feedback, whether positive or negative, to the relevant authorities. Civil society organizations and their representatives can also help to implement digital literacy programmes to reduce or eliminate the negative impact of misinformation and disinformation on citizens. Although it is frequently the case that many governments use the guise of regulating the Internet to try and constrain or prevent criticisms or being held to account, there are also examples of government officials and parliamentarians putting forward flawed or inappropriate policy proposals out of ignorance. Stakeholders from civil society, the media, academia, or the technical community can help educate and enlighten them in a non-confrontational manner to build trust and win their confidence. Civil society actors should support legitimate governmental processes aimed at combating criminal activities online and lend their expertise to such initiatives to ensure that the measures respect human rights. A CIPESA Series 15