Unveiling the digital rights check: Safeguarding human rights in digital transformation
As countries worldwide adopt digitalisation strategies, digital technologies are increasingly integrated into public administration, offering potential for improved accessibility and more efficient processes. However, there is growing concern that such technologies might exacerbate discrimination, enable increased surveillance, and inadvertently support authoritarian regimes.
To address these concerns, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the Danish Institute for Human Rights have developed the Digital Rights Check, a human rights assessment and guidance tool specifically designed for staff and partners working in technical development cooperation and development finance on digital projects.
The need for such a tool is underscored by the World Bank’s significant increase in digital projects, from just six in 2019 to 29 in 2021. Although digital technologies offer many benefits, their misuse may reinforce patterns of discrimination and exclusion, highlighting the importance of identifying and assessing human rights risks within digital development projects.
The tool is developed in cooperation with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).
The Digital Rights Check allows users to identify risks related to the types of technologies used, to thecountry and context in which it is implemented and to the intended users of the solution.
Using the Digital Rights Check tool, Mohamed Kimbugwe, Digital Government Adviser with the Digital Transformation Center - Kenya, concludes: “You get to think about the roles of all involved and the case studies offer a practical perspective”.