Thursday, December 23, 2021

Andrew & Bernard: Human Rights Responsibilities in the Digital Age: States, Companies and Individuals

Jonathan Andrew
(Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights) & Frédéric Bernard (Univ. of Geneva) have published Human Rights Responsibilities in the Digital Age: States, Companies and Individuals (Hart Publishing 2021). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:
This book examines the tangled responsibilities of states, companies, and individuals surrounding human rights in the digital age. Digital technologies have a huge impact – for better and worse – on human lives; while they can clearly enhance some human rights, they also facilitate a wide range of violations. States are expected to implement efficient measures against powerful private companies, but, at the same time, they are drawn to technologies that extend their own control over citizens. Tech companies are increasingly asked to prevent violations committed online by their users, yet many of their business models depend on the accumulation and exploitation of users' personal data. While civil society has a crucial part to play in upholding human rights, it is also the case that individuals harm other individuals online. All three stakeholders need to ensure that technology does not provoke the disintegration of human rights.