Rightstech
Human rights technology (abbreviated Rightstech or rightsTech) is the technology and innovation that aims to augment traditional methods in the delivery of human rights.[1] It is an emerging industry that uses technology to improve activities in the field of human rights. The use of smartphones for mobile delivery of human rights surveys, for instance, and public visualisations of human rights data are examples of technologies aiming to make human rights more accessible to the general public.[2] Rightstech organisations may be nonprofit or for-profit, academic, governmental, or other civil society actors.
Definition
Rightstech is the term used to refer to innovations in the human rights and technology crossover space, and typically refers to organisations like slavefreetrade or other services that use technology to provide human rights services to businesses or consumers. It could rightly be further described to include any entity that provides human rights services through software or other technology and may (in the future) include anything from rights-promoting apps to rights-enabling cryptocurrency.[3]
According to the MacMillan Dictionary, the term was first used with this meaning by Brian iselin, CEO of Swiss nonprofit, slavefreetrade, in June 2020.[4]
Technologies
Within the human rights community, some of the used technologies include artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and blockchain.
Artificial Intelligence is a blanket term for many different technologies. In terms of the "rightstech" industry, AI holds promise in various forms. AI algorithms can be used to predict changes in human rights conditions, can help quantify human rights, and give insight into the conditions for change in human rights. AI can be used to provide insight on consumer spending, for example, and allows human rights actors to better understand their stakeholders.
Big Data is another "rightstech" technology that human rights institutions use. In the human rights sector, big data can be used to model and predict change and help create new strategies as a result. Big Data can be used to analyse the extent of rights enablement in society or in a segment of society. Big Data can be used to help communicate to a broad audience, and also enable the development of new knowledge, especially, for example, around correlates of human rights.
Blockchain is another technology that is beginning to be used in the sector. Though blockchain is still an emerging technology, many nonprofit and for-profit actors are beginning to recognise the impact that it will have and are investing accordingly.
Examples
The world's first project understood to be a rightstech project, directly bringing technology and human rights together, is Swiss NGO slavefreetrade which operates a human rights compliance system to measure human rights performance of organisations and workplaces.[5]
References
- ↑ https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/rightstech#:~:text=%E2%80%8Bnoun,human%20rights%20through%20distributed%20intelligence.
- ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/enter-rightstech-brian-iselin/
- ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/enter-rightstech-brian-iselin/
- ↑ https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/rightstech#:~:text=%E2%80%8Bnoun,human%20rights%20through%20distributed%20intelligence.
- ↑ https://slavefreetrade.org/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/enter-rightstech-brian-iselin/ https://slavefreetrade.org/ https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/rightstech#:~:text=%E2%80%8Bnoun,human%20rights%20through%20distributed%20intelligence.
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