Human Rights in the Digital Age
The rapid evolution of digital technology brings with it profound societal changes. Robots, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Internet of Things are only a few popular terms, which describe how digital transformation impacts our society. Digital technologies foster a huge potential to strengthen human rights in many ways - the internet provides access to an unparalleled information and communication infrastructure, robotic systems and other digital tools are used in the context of health care and intelligent work clothes have the potential to imporve workers' safety and increase production. At the same time, digital technology may also pose a severe threat to human rights and bring with it new forms or patterns of human rights violations, in particular with a view to the rights to privacy, personal freedom and non-discrimination.
While the UZHR has already addressed isolated questions pertaining to human rights in the digital age in the past, emphasis is now changed towards dealing with human rights in the digital age in a more inter-connected and coordinated manner.
Herefore, the UZHR also cooperates with the University of Zurich Center for Information, Society and Law (ITSL) and Digital Society Initiative (DSI).
Activities of the UZHR
In general:
- Podcast UZHR-event series Künstliche Intelligenz und Menschenrechte (in German) in spring semester 2022.
- UZHR-event series Digitalisation in the context of human rights (in German) in spring semester 2019.
- UZHR-event series The right to privacy in the digital age (in German) in fall semester 2015
