Digital Empowerment Library

UNITE and Transform Health have developed a Parliamentarians’ Toolkit on “Harnessing Digital Health for Universal Health Coverage”. This toolkit contains tools and resources to support Parliamentarians to champion digital health in global and national contexts, influence priorities, ensure robust legal frameworks for digital health, and ensure effective implementation of digital health transformation strategies, in support of UHC goals.

This programme of four webinars and a series of five specific modules has been designed to strengthen the capacity of civil society actors to understand and promote the business and human rights framework in the tech sector.

Based on a workshop co-organised with New America’s Open Technology Institute, Ranking Digital Rights and the Global Network Initiative, it offers human rights defenders a comprehensive grounding in business and human rights in the context of the digital environment—with a specific focus on privacy and free expression.

The four initial webinars provide a broad survey of the key issues at stake, with the subsequent modules offering additional depth and insight. The modules are also accompanied by a detailed set of notes.

As part of our work on Emerging Tech, GPD delivered a series of webinars for civil society groups focused on AI, human rights and engagement in policymaking. The transcripts for each session, as well as accompanying slides and recommended background reading can be found via the link.

Webinar #1: An Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights
Webinar #2: Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technologies at the UN Human Rights Council
Webinar #3: Engaging in National AI Policymaking
Webinar #4: Engaging in Global and Regional AI Policymaking

This pack comprises two linked resources:

1. Assessing Cybercrime Laws from a Human Rights Perspective: Drawing upon international standards, this tool provides a standalone framework for assessing the different elements of cybercrime legislation from a human rights perspective. It also provides examples of good and poor practice from existing pieces of cybercrime legislation across the world, and highlights further considerations, beyond the text of the legislation, that governments and other stakeholders should take into account when developing or revising cybercrime legislation.
2. Assessing National Cybersecurity Strategies from a Human Rights Perspective: The aim of this tool is to guide the development of rights-respecting National Cybersecurity Strategies (NCSSs), by examining their critical components, identifying how the substance of those components can and should respect, protect and promote human rights, and providing examples of good practice seen in existing NCSSs.

This guide, jointly developed with the Global Network Initiative, aims to support civil society organisations in engaging with the tech sector around issues affecting human rights.

It is structured in three parts:
- Part I: Identifies and explains the role of key actors within the tech sector and some of the common human rights issues they face;
- Part II: The core of the guide, sets out a four-step, practical process for effectively engaging with a tech company; including targeted tips;
- Part III: Real life case studies of successful civil society engagement around the world, examining the context, approach, and outcomes.

Marginalised perspectives, particularly from women and LGBTQ+ communities, are largely absent in current cyber norm discussions. This is a serious issue, as marginalised groups often face elevated and specific threats in cyberspace

Our bespoke toolkit provides policymakers and other stakeholders with a range of resources to address this lack of inclusion, including:
- A how-to guide on developing an inclusive process to develop a cybernorm or implement existing agreed norms
- An introduction to key terms and concepts relevant to inclusivity and cybernorms
- Key questions for facilitating inclusive stakeholder mapping processes
- A mapping of regional and global cybernorm processes

This course is for anyone interested in learning how to use data in meaningful ways. It is designed as an introductory course to data literacy, starting with the basics: what is data, what does it mean to be data literate, and why is it important in today’s world?

This self-paced course follows the journeys of a concerned parent, a small business owner, and a public health expert, all of whom rely on data to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. It connects skills we already use to strategies for engaging with data in more intentional and meaningful ways.

Whether you are an advanced high school student, a K-12 educator, a post-secondary student or educator, or an independent learner hoping to reskill or upskill, this course is for you.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has enormous potential for improving health outcomes and helping countries achieve universal health coverage. However, for AI to have a beneficial impact on people’s health, ethical considerations and human rights must be placed at the centre of its design, development and use. Adapted from the core contents of the Guidance on Ethics & Governance of Artificial Intelligence for Health, this course introduces entry-level knowledge to policymakers, AI developers and designers, and health care providers who are involved in designing, developing, using and regulating AI systems for health.

Written by experts in the fight against disinformation, this handbook explores the very nature of journalism with modules on why trust matters; thinking critically about how digital technology and social platforms are conduits of the information disorder; fighting back against disinformation and misinformation through media and information literacy; fact-checking 101; social media verification and combatting online abuse.

An introductory course engaging judicial operators. Structured around six modules, it unpacks the opportunities and risks of the increasing adoption of AI technologies across justice systems and AI’s impact for the administration of justice, particularly concerning human rights and AI ethics and governance issues. The course is developed by UNESCO and The Future Society, with the support of Cetic.br|NIC.br, the National Judicial College, and IEEE SA. It was made possible by the kind contributions of the UNESCO Multi Donor Programme on Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists (MDP) and the Open Society Foundations.