ABOUT
Welcome to the United Nations Hub for Human Rights and Digital Technology. As our world becomes ever-more digital, there is a greater need for our rights to be respected both online and offline. The UN has been considering how our valuable human rights protections apply in the digital space. You can find the full scope of key texts, including standards, analysis, and recommendations emerging from the United Nations human rights mechanisms, on this site.
"Together, as we seek to recover from the pandemic, we must learn to better curtail harmful use of digital technology and to better unleash its power as a democratizing force and an enabler."
UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL
ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
BROWSE BY THEME
NEW SEARCH
Use the search bar below to find materials on specific issues. You may also explore different themes by clicking on the boxes below. New materials will be added regularly.
Civic space and content governance; Security � Counter-Terrorism
Special Rapporteurs
Link between ICT and the sexual exploitation of children
Report presented to the 43rd session of the HRC in 2020 providing an overview of the Special Rapporteur's activities since her previous report, focusing on the link between ICT and the sexual exploitation of children
2020
Civic space and content governance
Special Rapporteurs
Disease pandemics and the freedom of opinion and expression
Special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression issued a report : Disease pandemics and the freedom of opinion and expression, that specifically tackles issues such as access to the Internet, that is highlighted to be a critical element of health-care policy and practice, public information and even the right to life. The report calls for greater international coordination on digital connectivity given the importance of digital access to health-care information.
2020
Discrimination and Equality
Special Rapporteurs
Development and use of emerging technologies in ways that are uniquely experimental, dangerous and disriminatory in the border and immigration enfocement context.
Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, presented at the 75th session of General Assembly
2020
SDGs - Digital divide; Discrimination and equality;
Special Rapporteurs
Digitalization of education
Special Rapporteur on the right to education - 2020 - Report presented to the 44th session of the HRC in 2020 on the impact of the coronavirus disease crisis on the right to education, focusing also on the digitalization of education and recommending that: Governments should consider the massive arrival of private actors through digital technology as a major danger for education systems and the right to education in the long term. They should ensure, including through the adoption of appropriate regulation, that the increased role of the private sector will not lead to the capture of limited public resources for education by commercial entities seeking to profit from the crisis, the collection of learners and teachers data or advertising directed at children and youth. Education and learning solutions should be developed as a public good, without commercial or other restrictive licenses that threaten the enjoyment of the right to education and deepen inequalities.
2020
Privacy, surveillance, data
Special Rapporteurs
Elements that are needed to set a rights-based global agenda
Report presented to the 44th session of the HRC in 2020 on the elements that are needed to set a rights-based global agenda for advancing the right to mental health, discussing digital surveillance
2020
Privacy, Data, and Surveillance
Working Group
Border security technologies and monitoring services, including the use of biometric data
Impact of the use of private military and security services in
immigration and border management on the protection of
the rights of all migrants: Report of the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination
2020