Blog of Dr. Olga Tzortzatou-Nanopoulou, SI UN Representative in Geneva.
As the next UN Human Rights Council meeting begins, it is important to reflect on the recent high-level informal discussion led by Ambassador Omar Zniber. The discussion focused on the critical intersection of new technologies, artificial intelligence (AI), and the digital divide, with a strong emphasis on their impact on human rights, particularly for women and girls. Among the many speakers taking the floor it was underlined that Generative AI is a highly developed tool, which must be used in a right way to protect people, including women and girls. The upcoming meeting provides a key opportunity to continue these discussions and explore solutions that uphold human rights in the digital age.
The meeting also deliberated on a wide range of topics related to the uses of AI tools which specifically affect women and girls. An excellent example of an AI platform resulted in saving the lives of 18,000 women and 6,000 children by matching missing women and girls. Moreover, the Spotlight tool, uses AI to analyse online platforms and identify potential girl victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation. A strong message by the UN Women representative indicating the gender-based inequalities in the digital age and raised concerns on deep fakes used for creating pornographic material against women and girls who are disproportionally affected.
Moreover, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) representative stressed that it is imperative more than ever to “harness the power of disruptive technologies”, showcasing the work of WIPO in the field and its partnership with the International Telecommunication Union and the World Health Organisation. This partnership has delivered important guidance on AI governance in the health domain, including on ethics, regulatory considerations, data quality, and the clinical evaluation of AI solutions which affect all populations including women and girls. Furthermore, the platform WIPO GREEN, representing over 128,000 technologies from 140 countries, is a success story of implementing AI tools for addressing climate change.
The US Ambassador to the UN mentioned that “women, girls and other marginalised populations” are most affected by new technologies and must be protected from misuse of AI high. The Ambassador also high lightened that the Declaration of Human Rights applies “both offline and online”, while the UK representative to the World Trade Organisation and UN concluded his statement by pointing out that “We must avoid deepening the digital divide as this technology develops. By working together, we can achieve a digital transformation that is inclusive, sustainable, protects human rights and harnesses tech to get the SDGs back on track”.
Overall, the take home message of this meeting was that it is necessary to adopt a human rights-based approach in implementing new technologies with respect to commonly agreed principles including equality.