On 26 September, together with FIAN International, IT for Change, Transnational Institute (TNI), and Third World Network (TWN), we participated in a thematic briefing with members of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) about the impact of digitalisation on various economic, social, and cultural rights. We explored possible ways for the Committee to act in this regard within its mandate.

The general debate on digital technologies in the human rights system has primarily focused on the digital divide, its implications for inequality and social exclusion, and the impacts of digital technologies on civil and political rights. Only recently has it begun to explicitly discuss the need to regulate these technologies to ensure respect, protection, and fulfillment of human rights. 

This regulatory need is particularly critical when private entities promote and control these technologies, coupled with introducing market-oriented principles into areas essential to fulfilling economic, social, and cultural rights, such as public services, education, and health. Thus, it is necessary to raise awareness of the scale and diversity of the impacts of new digital technologies on various human rights, particularly on economic, social, and cultural rights.

While the role of digital and data technologies in shaping society and economy is increasingly understood and recognised, the many downstream/cascading impacts of digitalisation and datafication are still largely unexplored. Human rights institutions have yet to address the far-reaching real-world consequences of digital technology, particularly how dominant platforms, data, and AI models build on and perpetuate unjust socio-economic structures. 

In addition, the tendency to focus on some aspects of 'digital human rights and laws to address these have created discursive silos and relegated debates about socio-economic justice to spaces outside of the human rights domain. 

While contemporary developments in law and policy are relevant, further efforts should be made to integrate the issue into all human rights bodies and processes. The human rights system is essential in ensuring that digitalisation processes support respect, protection, and fulfillment of human rights. 

The participants included Anita Gurumurthy (IT for Change), Kinda Mohamedieh (Third World Network), Sofia Scasserra (TNI), and Ana María Suárez Franco(FIAN International). 

At the meeting, we emphasised two main points: 

1. EdTech has ushered a new wave of privatisation within the education sector, driven primarily by profit-oriented digital technology companies. These companies prioritise profits or the interests of their shareholders over the public interests of students, educators, and society at large.

2. There is a pressing need for regulation, oversight, and transparency to address these risks and protect, guarantee, and fulfil the right to education.  

Our presentation aimed to encourage the Committee to be guided by the Abidjan Principles on the right to education to ensure that the integration of digital technology in education is effectively regulated and monitored by States. This will ensure that, where they are applied, they contribute towards the full enjoyment of the right to education for all, including through equal access for all, with particular attention to vulnerable, marginalised, and disadvantaged groups. It will also ensure that commercial entities do not capture public resources prioritising profits over rights.