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OFFICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

 * Post date March 1, 2022



Acronym: OHCHR

Address: Palais Wilson 52, Rue des Pâquis, 1201 Geneva, Switzerland

Website: https://www.ohchr.org/

Stakeholder group: International and regional organisations

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and other
related UN human rights entities, namely the United Nations Human Rights
Council, the Special Procedures, and the Treaty Bodies are considered together
under this section.




The UN Human Rights Office is headed by the OHCHR and is the principal UN entity
on human rights. Also known as UN Human Rights, it is part of the UN
Secretariat. UN Human Rights has been mandated by the UN General Assembly (UNGA)
to promote and protect all human rights. As such, it plays a crucial role in
supporting the three fundamental pillars of the UN: peace and security, human
rights, and development. UN Human Rights provides technical expertise and
capacity development in regard to the implementation of human rights, and in
this capacity assists governments in fulfilling their obligations.

UN Human Rights is associated with a number of other UN human rights entities.
To illustrate, it serves as the secretariat for the UN Human Rights Council
(UNHRC) and the Treaty Bodies. The UNHRC is a body of the UN that aims to
promote the respect of human rights worldwide. It discusses thematic issues, and
in addition to its ordinary session, it has the ability to hold special sessions
on serious human rights violations and emergencies. The ten Treaty Bodies are
committees of independent experts that monitor the implementation of the core
international human rights treaties.

The UNHRC established the Special Procedures, which are made up of UN Special
Rapporteurs (i.e. independent experts or working groups) working on a variety of
human rights thematic issues and country situations to assist the efforts of the
UNHRC through regular reporting and advice. The Universal Periodic Review (UPR),
under the auspices of the UNHRC, is a unique process that involves a review of
the human rights records of all UN member states, providing the opportunity for
each state to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights
situations in their countries. UN Human Rights also serves as the secretariat to
the UPR process.

Certain non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and national human rights
institutions participate as observers in UNHRC sessions after receiving the
necessary accreditation.




DIGITAL ACTIVITIES

Digital issues are increasingly gaining prominence in the work of UN Human
Rights, the UNHRC, the Special Procedures, the UPR, and the Treaty Bodies.

A landmark document that provides a blueprint for digital human rights is the
UNHRC resolution (A/HRC/20/8) on the promotion, protection, and enjoyment of
human rights on the internet, which was first adopted in 2012, starting a string
of regular resolutions with the same name addressing a growing number of issues.
All resolutions affirm that the same rights that people have offline must also
be protected online. Numerous other resolutions and reports from UN human rights
entities and experts considered in this overview tackle an ever-growing range of
other digital issues including the right to privacy in the digital age; freedom
of expression and opinion; freedom of association and peaceful assembly; the
rights of older persons; racial discrimination; the rights of women and girls;
human rights in the context of violent extremism online; economic, social, and
cultural rights; human rights and technical standard-setting; business and human
rights; and the safety of journalists.




DIGITAL POLICY ISSUES




ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

In 2018, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to
freedom of opinion and expression presented a report to the UNGA on Artificial
Intelligence (AI) Technologies and Implications for the Information Environment.
Among other things, the document addresses the role of AI in the enjoyment of
freedom of opinion and expression including ‘access to the rules of the game
when it comes to AI-driven platforms and websites’ and therefore urges for a
human rights-based approach to AI.

For her 2020 thematic report to the Human Rights Council, the UN Special
Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia,
and related intolerance analysed different forms of racial discrimination in the
design and use of emerging technologies, including the structural and
institutional dimensions of this discrimination. She followed up with reports
examining how digital technologies, including AI-driven predictive models,
deployed in the context of border enforcement and administration reproduce,
reinforce, and compound racial discrimination.

In 2020, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination published its
General Recommendation No. 36 on preventing and combating racial profiling by
law enforcement officials (CERD/C/GC/36), which focuses on algorithmic
decision-making and AI in relation to racial profiling by law enforcement
officials.

In 2021, UN Human Rights published a report analysing how AI impacts the
enjoyment of the right to privacy and other human rights. It clarifies measures
that states and businesses should take to ensure that AI is developed and used
in ways that benefit human rights and prevent and mitigate harm.

The UN Human Rights B-Tech project is running a Generative AI project that
demonstrates the ways in which the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human
Rights should guide more effective understanding, mitigation, and governance of
the risks associated with generative AI.

UN Human Rights also weighs in on specific policy and regulatory debates, such
as by an open letter concerning the negotiations of a European Union AI Act.




CHILD SAFETY ONLINE WITHIN THE WORK OF THE OHCHR, ‘CHILD SAFETY ONLINE’ IS
REFERRED TO AS ‘RIGHTS OF THE CHILD’ AND DEALT WITH AS A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE.

The issue of child safety online has garnered the attention of UN human rights
entities for some time. A 2016 resolution on Rights of the Child: Information
and Communications Technologies and Child Sexual Exploitation adopted by the
UNHRC calls on states to ensure ‘full, equal, inclusive, and safe access […] to
information and communications technologies by all children and safeguard the
protection of children online and offline’, as well as the legal protection of
children from sexual abuse and exploitation online. The Special Rapporteur on
the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution,
child pornography, and other child sexual abuse material, mandated by the UNHRC
to analyse the root causes of sale and sexual exploitation and pro- mote
measures to prevent it, also looks at issues related to child abuse, such as the
sexual exploitation of children online, which has been addressed in a report (A/
HRC/43/40) published in 2020, but also in earlier reports.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child published its General Comment No. 25 on
Children’s Rights in Relation to the Digital Environment (CRC/C/GC/25), which
lays out how states parties should implement the convention in relation to the
digital environment and provides guidance on relevant legislative, policy, and
other measures to ensure full compliance with their obligations under the
convention and optional protocols in the light of opportunities, risks, and
challenges in promoting, respecting, protecting, and fulfilling all children’s
rights in the digital environment.




DATA GOVERNANCE

UN Human Rights maintains an online platform consisting of a number of databases
on anti-discrimination and jurisprudence, as well as the Universal Human Rights
Index (UHRI), which provides access to recommendations issued to countries by
Treaty Bodies, Special Procedures, and the UPR of the UNHCR.

UN Human Rights also published a report titled A Human Rights-Based Approach to
Data – Leaving no one Behind in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that
specifically focuses on issues of data collection and disaggregation in the
context of sustainable development.

UN Human Rights has worked closely with partners across the UN system in
contributing to the Secretary-General’s 2020 Data Strategy, and co-leads, with
the Office of Legal Affairs and UN Global Pulse, work on the subsequent Data
Protection and Privacy Program.




CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

UN Human Rights launched the Guiding Principles in Technology Project (B-Tech
Project) to provide guidance and resources to companies operating in the
technology space with regard to the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles
on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs on BHR). Following the publication of a
B-Tech scoping paper in 2019, several foundational papers have delved into a
broad range of business-related issues, from business-model-related human rights
risks to access to remedies. At the heart of the B-Tech project lies
multistakeholder engagement, informing all of its outputs. The B-Tech project is
enhancing its engagement in Africa, working with technology company operators,
investors, and other key digital economy stakeholders, including civil society,
across Africa in a set of African economies and their tech hubs to create
awareness of implementing the UNGPs on BHR.

Following a multistakeholder consultation held on 7–8 March 2022, the High
Commissioner presented her report on UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human
Rights and Technology Companies (A/HRC/50/56), which demonstrated the value and
practical application of the UNGPs in preventing and addressing adverse human
rights impacts by technology companies.




EXTREME POVERTY WITHIN THE WORK OF THE OHCHR, ‘EXTREME POVERTY’ IS DEALT WITH AS
A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE.

The Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights has in recent years
increased his analysis of human rights issues arising in the context of
increased digitisation and automation. His 2017 report to the General Assembly
tackled the socio-economic challenges in an emerging world where automation and
AI threaten traditional sources of income and analysed the promises and possible
pitfalls of introducing a universal basic income. His General Assembly report in
2019 addressed worrying trends in connection with the digitisation of the
welfare state. Moreover, in his 2022 report to the UNHRC on non-take-up of
rights in the context of social protection, the Special Rapporteur highlighted,
among other things, the benefits and considerable risks associated with
automation of social protection processes.




CONTENT POLICY

Geneva-based human rights organisations and mechanisms have consistently
addressed content policy questions, in particular in the documents referred
under Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association.
Other contexts where content policy plays an important role include Rights of
the Child, Gender Rights Online, and Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Moreover, the use of digital technologies in the context of terrorism and
violent extremism is closely associated with content policy considerations.

UN Human Rights, at the request of the UNHRC, prepared a compilation report in
2016, which explores, among other issues, aspects related to the prevention and
countering of violent extremism online, and underscores that responses to
violent extremism that are robustly built on human rights are more effective and
sustainable.

Additional efforts were made in 2019 when the Special Rapporteur on the
promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while
countering terrorism published a report where she examined the multifaceted
impacts of counter-terrorism measures on civic space and the rights of civil
society actors and human rights defenders, including measures taken to address
vaguely defined terrorist and violent extremist content. In July 2020, she
published a report discussing the human rights implications of the use of
biometric data to identify terrorists and recommended safeguards that should be
taken.




INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES

COLLABORATION WITHIN THE UN SYSTEM

UN Human Rights is leading a UN system-wide process to develop a human rights
due diligence (HRDD) guidance for digital technology, as requested by the
Secretary-General’s Roadmap for Digital Cooperation and his Call to Action for
Human Rights. The HRDD guidance in development pertains to the application of
human rights due diligence and human rights impact assessment related to the
UN’s design, development, procurement, and use of digital technologies, and is
expected to be completed by the end of 2022.

As part of the implementation of the Secretary-General’s Call to Action for
Human Rights, UN Human Rights launched the UN Hub for Human rights and Digital
Technology, which provides a central repository of authoritative guidance from
various UN human rights mechanisms on the application of human rights norms to
the use and governance of digital technologies.

In addition, UN Human Rights is a member of the Legal Identity Agenda Task
Force, which promotes solutions for the implementation of SDG target 16.9 (i.e.
by 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration). It leads
its work on exclusion and discrimination in the context of digitised identity
systems.



NEUROTECHNOLOGY

Rapid advancements in neurotechnology and neuroscience, while holding promises
of medical benefits and scientific breakthroughs, present a number of human
rights and ethical challenges. Against this backdrop, UN Human Rights has been
contributing significantly to an inter-agency process led by the Executive
Office of the Secretary-General to develop a global roadmap for effective and
inclusive governance of neurotechnology.



SECRETARY-GENERAL’S REPORT ON OUR COMMON AGENDA

Since the adoption of A/RES/76/6 on Our Common Agenda in November 2021, the
follow-up by the UN system has been underway. UN Human Rights is co-leading
several proposals in collaboration with other entities, notably on the
application of the human rights framework in the digital sphere, mitigation and
prevention of internet shutdowns, and disinformation.



SMART CITIES

Making Cities Right for Young People” is a participatory research project,
supported by the Botnar Foundation, which examines the impact of the
digitalisation of cities on the enjoyment of human rights. It also examines
strategies to ensure that “smartness” is measured not solely by technological
advancements but by the realisation and promotion of inhabitants’ human rights
and well-being, and explores ways to promote digital technologies for civic
engagement, participation, and the public good, with a focus on meaningful youth
participation in decision-making processes. Launched in 2023, this project will
survey the current landscape and detail key human rights issues in urban
digitalisation. Based on participatory research carried out in three
geographically, socially, culturally, and politically diverse cities, it will
produce a report with initial findings and develop a roadmap for future
human-rights-based work on smart cities.



MIGRATION

In September 2023, UN Human Rights published a study, conducted with the
University of Essex, that analyses the far-reaching human rights implications of
specific border technologies. It provides recommendations for states and
stakeholders on how to take a human-rights-based approach in ensuring the use of
digital technologies at borders aligns with international human rights law and
standards. The study draws from a collective body of expertise, research, and
evidence, as well as extensive interviews and collaborative meetings with
experts.



The UNHRC has also mandated the Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy to
address the issue of online privacy in its Resolution on the Right to Privacy in
the Digital Age from 2015 (A/HRC/RES/28/16). To illustrate, the Special
Rapporteur has addressed the question of privacy from the stance of surveillance
in the digital age (A/HRC/34/60), which becomes particularly challenging in the
context of cross-border data flows. More recently, specific attention has been
given to the privacy of health data that is being produced more and more in the
day and age of digitalisation, and that requires the highest legal and ethical
standards (A/HRC/40/63). In this vein, in 2020, the Special Rapporteur examined
data protection and surveillance in relation to COVID-19 and contact tracing in
his preliminary report (A/75/147), in which he provided a more definitive
analysis of how pandemics can be managed with respect to the right to privacy
(A/76/220) in 2021. In another


PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION

Challenges to the right to privacy in the digital age, such as surveillance,
communications interception, and the increased use of data-intensive
technologies, are among some of the issues covered by the activities of UN Human
Rights. At the request of the UNGA and the UNHRC, the High Commissioner prepared
four reports on the right to privacy in the digital age. The first report,
presented in 2014, addressed the threat to human rights caused by surveillance
by governments, in particular mass surveillance. The ensuing report, published
in September 2018, identified key principles, standards, and best practices
regarding the promotion and protection of the right to privacy. It outlined
minimum standards for data privacy legal frameworks. In September 2021, the High
Commissioner presented a ground-breaking report on AI and the right to privacy
(A/HRC/48/31), in which she called for a ban on AI applications that are
incompatible with international human rights law, and stressed the urgent need
for a moratorium on the sale and use of AI systems that pose serious human
rights risks until adequate safeguards are put in place. In September 2022, the
High Commissioner presented a report focusing on the abuse of spyware by public
authorities, the key role of encryption in ensuring the enjoyment of human
rights in the digital age, and the widespread monitoring of public spaces.

The UNHRC also tackles online privacy and data protection. Resolutions on the
promotion and protection of human rights on the internet have underlined the
need to address security concerns on the internet in accordance with
international human rights obligations to ensure the protection of all human
rights online, including the right to privacy. The UNHRC has also adopted
specific resolutions on the right to privacy in the digital age, addressing
issues such as mass surveillance, AI, the responsibility of business
enterprises, and the key role of the right to privacy as an enabler of other
human rights. Resolutions on the safety of journalists have emphasised the
importance of encryption and anonymity tools for journalists to freely exercise
their work. Two resolutions on new and emerging technologies (2019 and 2021)
have further broadened the lens, for example by asking for a report on the human
rights implications of technical standard-setting processes.

The UNHRC has also mandated the Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy to
address the issue of online privacy in its Resolution on the Right to Privacy in
the Digital Age from 2015 (A/HRC/RES/28/16). To illustrate, the Special
Rapporteur has addressed the question of privacy from the stance of surveillance
in the digital age (A/HRC/34/60), which becomes particularly challenging in the
context of cross-border data flows. More recently, specific attention has been
given to the privacy of health data that is being produced more and more in the
day and age of digitalisation, and that requires the highest legal and ethical
standards (A/HRC/40/63). In this vein, in 2020, the Special Rapporteur examined
data protection and surveillance in relation to COVID-19 and contact tracing in
his preliminary report (A/75/147), in which he provided a more definitive
analysis of how pandemics can be managed with respect to the right to privacy
(A/76/220) in 2021. In another




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