Digital responsibility from duty bearers and the private sector - how do we move on from here?
Global Focus is happy to be part of the new global initiative Tech for Democracy, spearheaded by the Danish government. Tech for Democracy brings together civil society, governments, and the tech industry to work in global action to find concrete solutions to ensure that technology and digitalization work for – and not against - democracy and human rights. Global Focus is determined to ensure that global civil society and citizens’ voices are at the forefront of Tech for Democracy.
Global Focus invites you to be part of Tech for Democracy´s Days of Action - five days of multistakeholder dialogue on how technology can support democracy and human rights. Each Day of Action is dedicated to an overarching theme and will include a myriad of sessions hosted by actors from around the globe and across all time zones. All sessions are virtual on an encrypted platform and free of charge.
If you need Closed Captions for accessibility, then it is available in the meeting settings on the BlueJeans app. Otherwise we recommend using the browser to access the sessions on BlueJeans.
PROGRAMME:
THEMES:
Transparency, surveillance, data privacy, SoMe regulations, algorithms and the right to non-discrimination etc.
{slider title="SESSION 1 - Introduction to responsible development and use of digital technologies" class="icon"}
09:30-10:30 UTC+1
Businesses have a responsibility to respect human rights in their activities and throughout their value chains, something that was made clear in 2011 when the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) were unanimously endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council. But what do the UNGPs really mean for the responsibilities of the private sector? And what is the role and responsibility of the state?
This session will provide a brief introduction to the UNGPs, contextualising the principles to the digital ecosystem and what that really means for what companies should and should not do. Seeing the increasing calls on businesses to conduct different forms of human rights-relevant impact assessments, the session will also include a brief introduction to the DIHR’s Guidance on Human Rights Impact Assessment of Digital Activities, with explanations of how it can be used by businesses, states as well as other stakeholders.
It will be possible to ask questions throughout the session, and there will also be a dedicated time for Q&A towards the end.
ORGANIZERS
Danish Institute for Human Rights
SPEAKERS
Emil Lindblad Kernell, Danish Institute for Human Rights
Cathrine Bloch Veiberg, Danish Institute for Human Rights
{slider title="SESSION 2 - Policy Pathway To Strengthen Digital Security and Resilience" class="icon"}
10:00-11:30 UTC+1
The Digital Space provides a unique development window for Africa to lip-frog into social , economic and democratic prosperity if well harnessed within the next decade. However, lack of clear digital rights policy in all the 54 African states keeps fueling a growing ‘digital divide’, increased cyber risks, authoritarian playbooks link internet shutdowns as , language exclusion among other digital related set-backs remain a threat for Africa’s potential to harness from the fourth industrial revolution.
Our panel of seasoned Digital Rights Defenders will give fundamental arguments on why policy remains to be a major booster towards achieving Digital security and resilience in Africa.
ORGANIZERS
Central Coordinator Solidarity Uganda
One More Percent
SPEAKERS
Bayingana Simon, Uganda
Brian Malika, Kenya:
Brian Malika has founded One More Percent which is a non for profit media organization that amplifies voices of marginalised populations like people with disabilities, women in rural areas and youth living in slums among others. Brian malika believes that the ambition for achieving a just and fair world for all by the year 2030 as defined by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is achievable when traditionally marginalized people at the grassroots level speak out their mind for a prosperous world through an open and fair media that is anchored on intellectualism.
{slider title="SESSION 3 - National Human Rights Institutions as digital rights watchdogs" class="icon"}
11:00-12:30 UTC+1
National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) are uniquely placed in the nexus between public and private actors and civil society and can work to ensure alignment towards better human rights protection and promotion in the digital age. This session will look at how the NHRI mandate areas are challenged by technology and what opportunities technology provides in fulfilling these with a view to establishing an alliance of NHRIs who wants to increase their engagement within the digital rights agenda.
During 2 breakout sessions (divided into English and French language groups), the participants will furthermore start exploring the particular role that NHRIs can play in each of the NHRI mandate areas and emerging best practice:
- Complaints-handling
- Investigations
- Monitoring & Reporting
- Research
- Human Rights Education & Awareness-raising
- Legislative Review
- Advising the Government
ORGANIZERS
Danish Institute for Human Rights
SPEAKERS
Eva Grambye, Danish Institute for Human Rights
Maureen Mghambi Mwadime, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights
Tseliso Thipanyane, South Africa Human Rights Commission
Ashnah Kalemera, CIPESA - Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa
Moderators: Danish Institute for Human Rights
{slider title="SESSION 4 - Dos and Don'ts: The Myth-busting of Dark Patterns" class="icon"}
13:00-14:00 UTC+1
Dark Patterns refers to interface design tactics in digital product developments to persuade you into doing things you would otherwise not do. It has been so commonly used in today's online tools, platforms, and services that some of such practices have become defaults-by-design. However, the manipulative nature of Dark Patterns makes it a major contributing factor to undermining people's agency and digital rights. It could cost the loss of money, control over one's own data, as well as trust in digital products and their developers.
As there are more and more attempts from internet freedom communities and policy-makers around the world to catalog and tackle the Dark Pattern problem, this workshop aims to demystify the myth of Dark Patterns by introducing a simple Dos and Don'ts tipsheet to evade the trap of Dark Patterns in product designs. The tipsheet was originally built in a workshop at RightsCon 2021 by a cross-disciplinary, cross-region group of experts and advocates. We aim to further develop the tipsheet and discover opportunities for collaborations and a wider application of the tipsheet.
ORGANIZERS
Acess Now
Simply Secure
Human Rights-Centered Design Community
{slider title="SESSION 5 - Whose standards? Attitudes to Free Speech and the Future of Content Moderation" class="icon"}
13:00-14:30 UTC+1
Customized version of report on attitudes on freedom of expression online vs real world and what it entails for content moderation at scale for NE cohort presented and discussed at a virtual roundtable for relevant Northern European stakeholders including academics, decision makers, NGOs, and activists.
ORGANIZERS
Justitia
SPEAKERS
Anne Marie Engtoft Larsen, Denmark’s Tech Ambassador
Christine Sørensen, Google
Asha Allen, Advocacy Director for Europe, Online Expression & Civic Space, Centre for Democracy and Technology
Jacob Mchangama, Justitia
Nikhil Pahwa, MediaNama
Paddy Leerssen, University of Amsterdam/Stanford University
{slider title="SESSION 6 - Harnessing Technology to Amplify Meaningful Participation" class="icon"}
14:00-15:30 UTC+1
The Global South has become a significant arena for digital governance and technological interventions. However, there is a lack of a unified understanding of the successes and challenges of such a digital penetration and its impacts on democracy. In particular, this session will discuss the emerging trends on the impact of technology on citizen's participation in governance processes. In particular, it will explore how digital governance, digital space and democracy, and digital regulation are evolving across the Global South.
The main input for discussion will be findings from the expert group roundtable hosted by the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), Southern Voice, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Oslo Governance Centre titled: Democracy Digitalized – Harnessing Technology to Amplify Meaningful Participation in Governance Processes. These discussions will provide a unique, multi stakeholder perspective from the Global South. These insights will kick off an interactive discussion about how to ensure that digital technologies promote equitable participation in governance processes.
ORGANIZERS
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Southern Voices
Centre for Policy Research (CPR)
SPEAKERS
Ananth Padmanabhan, Centre for Policy Research (CPR), India
Arthur Bainomugisha, Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE), Uganda
Carolina Tchintian, Center for the Implementation of Public Policies for Equity and Growth (CIPPEC), Argentina
Silvia Masiero, University of Oslo
{slider title="SESSION 7 - Responsible business conduct and technology – guidance gaps and future effort" class="icon"}
14:30-16:00 UTC+1
That businesses have a responsibility to respect human rights in their activities and throughout their value chains has been clear since the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights were unanimously endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011. The Global Network Initiative emerged around the same time to help information and communications technology companies protect users’ freedom of expression and privacy in the face of government demands or restrictions. Since then, much work has been done by civil society, academia, governments, the private sector, multilateral organisations and others to provide further clarity around the expectations on businesses with regard to specific sectors (e.g. extractive industries), complex issues (e.g. operating in conflict-affected contexts) and specific activities (e.g. purchasing practices). Notwithstanding all of this work, concerns about the development and use of digital technologies were not a main focus for the business and human rights community. However, as potentially significant human rights issues related to these technologies became ever more evident, more efforts have been made to make sense of the UNGPs in relation to the development and use of technologies (see e.g. OHCHR’s B-Tech Project) and yet more are needed.
This session will include speakers from diverse stakeholder groups, who are all working on ensuring greater respect for human rights in relation to technology, in order to discuss what they see as the important next steps in order to ensure responsible business conduct in the future and a better functioning digital ecosystem. This will include a discussion around what kinds of efforts are needed in 2022 to respond to questions such as: What are practical steps to ensure meaningful stakeholder and rights holder engagement? What does it really mean to be involved in negative impacts in the digital ecosystem? What is meaningful transparency, and how can transparency be used to improve the practices of all actors in the digital ecosystem? How and why must we ensure that institutional investors incorporate a human rights lens to their investments in technology companies? How coherent are the many proposed policies and regulations targeting digital technologies in relation to human rights due diligence, and what would we like to see from a human rights perspective?
The session participants will be able to ask questions and provide comments to the speakers, as well as propose other guidance gaps in relation to human rights due diligence that should be addressed during the Tech for Democracy year of action.
ORGANIZERS
Danish Institute for Human Rights
SPEAKERS
Jason Pielemeier, Deputy Director, Global Network Initiative
Mark Hodge, Independent Advisor, UN Human Rights B-Tech Project
Paloma Muñoz, Lead, Human Rights & Financial Services, BSR
Javier Pallero, Global Policy Director, Access Now
Théo Jaekel, Corporate Responsibility Expert - Business and Human Rights, Ericsson
Moderator: Danish Institute for Human Rights
{slider title="SESSION 8 - Record, encrypt, hide, send: using Tella to stay safe while documenting human rights" class="icon"}
15:00-16:00 UTC+1
In this session, we will present Tella, a mobile app used to document human rights in challenging environments. We will demo the app's main features and show how it protects both the user and the data they collect. We will also discuss a variety of user cases, including election monitoring, journalism, and human rights documentation.
ORGANIZERS
Viet Tan
SPEAKERS
Raphaël Mimoun, the project manager of Tella
{slider title="SESSION 9 - Days of Action Closing session - Next steps " class="icon"}
16:00-17:00 UTC+1
Next steps, Tech for Democracy Pledge, Tech for Democracy conference 18/11, Action Programme and Year of Action
ORGANIZERS
Global Focus
SPEAKERS
Chat Garcia Ramilo, executive director, Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
Peter Christensen, Secretary General of Global Focus
Sarah Lister, Head of Governance United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Paul Musyimi Mweu, activist, Afro-feminist and a youth champion advocating against social injustices.
Steven Feldstein, Senior Fellow, Democracy, Conflict and Governance, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Moderator: Sara Brandt, Global Focus
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