The first draft of the Digital Rights Governance Framework is out and open for feedback
The Cities Coalition for Digital Rights and UN-Habitat’s preliminary version of the Digital Rights Governance Framework is now published (download it in the link below) and open for feedback. Until the 10th of January city experts, organisations and residents will be able to provide feedback on this living document that has been co-created based on evidence-based experiences.
Why a Digital Rights Governance Framework?
Digital technologies influence change at a fast pace in society, and might have harmful impact on individuals and communities. Against this backdrop, cities need enhanced models of governance to manage opportunities and risks driven by technology and ensure digital rights, which ultimately are human rights in the digital space, are protected and promoted.
The deployment of digital solutions in cities, especially in geographies where the discussion of ethics and inclusion in technology is less developed, must have transparency, accountability and community participation at the forefront of its practices, in order to ensure that considerations over human rights in the digital space become as evident as universal human rights in the near future. Cities need to expand their capacities so as to be prepared and equipped to lead digital transformation strategies that are people-centered and support sustainable urbanization towards the public good.
A Framework for cities, created by cities
This Framework focuses on the local safeguarding of human rights in the digital context of city-governments. Specifically, it outlines how cities can uphold a human rights-based approach with regards to the digitalisation of their services and to some extent the digitalisation of the city. The document gathers foundations, structures and tools that cities can put in place and which can be customized according to local needs. It has been co-created by city and organisations’ experts’, which provided evidence-based experiences out of practice, and can be used as a self-assessment tool and maturity model for city-government locally.
The Framework will incorporate feedback to continue to evolve as a living document in order to keep up with the fast-paced beat that defines emerging technologies and to ensure best practices from all around the world are incorporated.
