(Originally published on the ITU website)
Embedding human rights in digital technologies is currently one of the United Nations’ priorities. On February 24, 2023, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, explained the importance of taking human rights into account in technical standards at a high-level meeting at the World Standards Cooperation (WSC). This was reported to the last TSAG meeting (TD213).
ITU Council discussed this subject as well in its July 2023 meeting (see C74 and C49). In recent months, the Human Rights Council has updated two resolutions on human rights applied to digital technologies. Resolution (A/HRC/RES/53/29) “New and emerging digital technologies and human rights”, updated on July 14, 2023, and resolution (A/HRC/54/L.12) “The right to privacy in the digital age”, updated on October 6, 2023.