Anriette Esterhuysen | |
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 Anriette Esterhuysen in 2014 |
Anriette Esterhuysen is a human rights defender and computer networking pioneer from South Africa. She has pioneered the use of Internet and Communications Technologies (ICTs) to promote social justice in South Africa and throughout the world, focusing on affordable Internet access. She was the executive director of the Association for Progressive Communications from 2000 until April 2017, when she became APC's Director of Policy and Strategy.[1] In November 2019 United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Esterhuysen to chair the Internet Governance Forum’s Multistakeholder Advisory Group.[2]
Esterhuysen holds a BA in Social Science, a Post Graduate Diploma in Library and Information Science and a BA in Musicology from the University of the Witwatersrand. During her university years, she was campus coordinator for the South African Student Press Union.[3]
In 1994, Anriette became the inaugural executive director of SANGONeT, a South African communications NGO, which itself was a merger of Worknet[4] (a communications NGO and member of the Association for Progressive Communications) and the Development Resources Center's Handsnet initiative. SANGONeT provided Internet connectivity, technical training, and website hosting to civil society organisations, trade unions, and others engaged in the mass democratic movement.
In 1992-1993 she was Director of Information Services at South Africa's Development Resources Centre,[5] where she set up a library and online news service for the NGO sector in South and Southern Africa, while mobilising information technologies to facilitate information and communication exchange in the broader development sector. Prior to that, she was Chief Librarian and consultant for the South African Council of Churches[6] (SACC), where she facilitated training in documentation techniques and information management.
From 1980 onwards, Esterhuysen was active in the struggle against Apartheid. Through her work at the SACC, and with the Church becoming an important civil society space [7] at the height of the anti-apartheid struggle, she saw the increasing importance of technology in accessing and sharing information. “In the late ‘80s, anti-apartheid groups, labour federations, environmental organisations and members of the green movement began using emerging communications technology to further their work in social justice and activism. It was out of this development that APC was formed in 1990.” [8] During the transition to democracy, Esterhuysen worked in promoting the use of ICTs to the emerging community of local NGOs.
Esterhuysen currently chairs the Multistakeholder Advisory Group of the Internet Governance Forum. She is a founder of Women's Net[9] in South Africa and has served on the Technical Advisory Committee of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and on the boards of the Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative and Ungana-Afrika.
Prior to joining APC Esterhuysen was executive director of South African Internet service provider member SANGONeT. Between 2002 and 2005, she was a member of the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force.
In 2017, Esterhuysen was appointed to the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace, and she served on the commission until its successful conclusion in 2019, participating in the drafting of its eight norms related to non-aggression in cyberspace.
In November 2019, Esterhuysen was appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to serve as the chair of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group, the coordination body for the Internet Governance Forum[10]
She was one of five finalists for IT Personality of the Year in South Africa in 2012.[11] She was inducted to the Internet Hall of Fame in 2013 as a "Global Connector".[12][13] In 2015, she was the winner of the Electronic Frontier Foundation' s Pioneer Awards.[14]
