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.
SDGs - Digital divide; Discrimination and equality;
Special Rapporteurs
Impact of digital technology on older people
Report presented to the 42nd session of the HRC in 2019 on the human rights of older persons in emergency situations, addressing, among other things, the impact of digital technologies, such as digital information and communications technology, satellite data and computer processing of digital information, and biometric identification, to provide emergency support and management during emergency situations
2019
Privacy, surveillance, data; Discrimination and equality, SDGs - Digital divide
Special Rapporteurs
Impact of migration on migrant women and girls
Report presented to 41st session of the HRC in 2019 on the impact of migration on migrant women and girls from a gender perspective in which the Special Rapporteur discusses, among other things, the need for information firewalls between the immigration authorities and public services so that migrant women and girls can exercise their human rights without the fear of being deported
2019
Civic Space and Content Governance
Special Rapporteurs
Human rights analysis of efforts by contemporary Nazi, neo-Nazi and other extremist groups to recruit and radicalize young people
Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance
2019
Discrimination and equality
Special Rapporteurs
Right of children to access to information about their origins
Report presented to the 74th session of the UNGA in 2019 on safeguards for the protection of the rights of children born from surrogacy arrangements, addressing, among other things, the right of children to access to information about their origins in the context of assisted reproductive technologies, which can be particularly important for their right to health
2019
SDGs - Digital divide; Discrimination and equality;
Special Rapporteurs
Impact of new technologies on the human rights of persons living in poverty
Report presented to the 74th session of the UNGA in 2019 on digital technology, social protection and human rights examining the impact of new technologies on the human rights of persons living in poverty, discussing, among other things, that systems of social protection and assistance are increasingly driven by digital data and technologies that are used to automate, predict, identify, surveil, detect, target and punish and how welfare budgets could be transformed through technology to ensure a higher standard of living for the vulnerable and disadvantaged, and providing several recommendations in this regard
2019
Civic space and content governance
Special Rapporteurs
Cyberspace as a public space
Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights - 2019 -Report presented to the 74th session of the UNGA in 2019 on the importance of public spaces for the exercise of cultural rights and the challenges that must be addressed so that everyone can access and enjoy such spaces, discussing, among other things, cyberspace as a public space and concluding that, in the digital age, public spaces are no longer limited to strictly physical spaces but also include cyberspace and that this implies that human rights guarantees continue to apply online, subject to the same regime of limitations recognized in international human rights law for distinctive rights and that public powers, to fulfil their human rights obligations, may need to take measures to ensure access to and participation in cyberspace for all
2019