Global Digital Compact must be guided by human rights, says Türk

Global Digital Compact
Deep-dive on Human Rights Online

Statement by Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Delivered by Ilze Brands-Kehris, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, on his behalf

Distinguished delegates,
Colleagues,

Thirty years ago, in 1993, the Internet was only just beginning to transform our world.

This felt like a once-in-a-century breakthrough.

We could not have predicted, then, a future where pivotal tech advances are an almost daily occurrence.

Where technology capable of reading and manipulating the mind is no longer far-fetched science fiction.

Or where artificial intelligence may soon create seismic shifts in the way we work, the way we think and the way we live.

Yet this is now our reality.

This technological progress presents enormous potential benefits to humankind, while at the same time posing risks to societies and human rights that are equally profound.

We see the digital space used -- and misused -- to attack individuals and groups, and to spread hate speech and damaging disinformation, without consequences or accountability, undermining the fundaments of our society and the social contract.

At the same time, those challenges have led to a slew of repressive legislation that is used to silence free expression, detain critics, and undermine democracy.

The right to privacy is dissipating. It is deeply troubling to see how lack of knowledge of history and manipulation have contributed to this trend.

And the ever-persistent digital divide continues to amplify inequalities. Internet shutdowns deny access to many who most need it, despite commitments to ensure the Internet is available to everyone, everywhere.

2023 is a milestone year. Thirty years ago, as the Internet was expanding, my Office was founded. In a sense, the human rights architecture of the last three decades has grown up with digital technology.

Today, it is critical that we effectively deploy this architecture so that humanity can enjoy the opportunities of technological progress, while managing the frightening risks.

Colleagues,

With risk comes complex considerations. How do we balance the benefits of data collection with the need to protect privacy? How do we protect freedom of expression while also preventing hate speech and disinformation?

Ethical considerations can and must guide us, but they are simply not sufficient. Human rights give us the universal and binding framework to shape concrete regulatory solutions, going beyond what ethics alone can do.

The development of the Global Digital Compact is a crucial opportunity to shape our digital future in ways that will genuinely benefit humanity.

In a context of rapid technological change, the task will not be easy.

Placing human rights at the centre of digital innovation and governance efforts will ensure our digital future is far healthier and help to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

We all want to ensure the Compact is useful, applicable and legitimate.

To do that, its development needs to be based on an inclusive and transparent process.

We need to hear the voices of governments, of regional bodies, of young people, of academics and experts, and of civil society from around the world, particularly from developing and middle-income countries.

We need to hear from the people who digital technology helps, but also from those who it harms.

And this must include society in all of its diversity, especially the most marginalised.

Colleagues,

As outlined in my Office’s submission, the private sector must be a constructive and positive force. The companies that develop, rely on, and deploy technologies bear an enormous responsibility to respect human rights.

This means human rights due diligence and risk management, it means greatly increased accountability, it means having grievance mechanisms in place and, where harm has occurred, it means supporting remedy to affected people. Companies must also allow researchers access to data, in a manner that respects user privacy.

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights provide a blueprint to help companies in these processes.

For their part, governments have a central role in regulating the activities of the private sector, and in ensuring that human rights are at the centre of regulation of new technologies.

They have a duty to ensure a free and open Internet, and to refrain from all forms of Internet shutdowns. Resources for dedicated independent bodies to tackle human rights issues in the technology sector are also vital.

And both technology companies and governments must redouble their efforts and work together across national boundaries to overcome fragmented and ad hoc approaches. The Internet has no borders.

Finally, they need to ensure the utmost transparency in all their actions. This means full public disclosure on the policies they implement, on their responses to online content, and the regular undertaking of publicly available human rights impact assessments.

Perhaps nowhere are the principles of human rights due diligence, transparency, and accountability more important than in the area of artificial intelligence. We have already seen the dire human rights consequences of the roll-out of facial recognition in law enforcement, cameras for mass surveillance, and spyware. Yet, before we can put in place guardrails for these known uses of AI, we now face the quickly evolving field of generative AI, where broad use of large language models in a variety of applications could have unparalleled and unpredictable impacts on all of us. I am sounding the alarm bells before the genie is entirely out of the bottle.

Colleagues,

Human rights provide a solid foundation for quick and effective action in the face of lightning speed technological progress.

We have existing human rights frameworks that cross continents and cultures.

Seventy-five years ago, the world adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, affirming that all human beings are born equal in rights and dignity.

This provided a basis for multiple international human rights treaties.

It paved the way for strong and effective governance.

Today, one of the most important emerging governance challenges is in the digital space.

There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Grounding the Global Digital Compact in an existing and legally binding framework is simply common sense and will also facilitate consultations with Member States on its content.

We must ensure that this resilient framework of human rights is applied to the new challenges of the digital age.

Human rights law, standards and principles provide guidance on all the thematic areas in the call for submissions to the Compact. But it is inadequate to see human rights as a separate topic. My Office has recommended that human rights be recognized as an overarching framework, integrated across all areas that the Compact seeks to cover.

Colleagues,

Today’s discussion – and every discussion – must focus on harnessing digital technology’s enormous potential for good, while limiting its potentially dramatic harms. A Global Digital Compact with human rights at its core will help us advance more quickly to its stated ambition: an open, free and secure digital future for all.

Thank you.