UN Human Rights director Peggy Hicks calls for human rights to be “encoded” in WHO digital health strategy

On 20 May 2026, Peggy Hicks, Director of the Thematic and Special Procedures Division of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights delivered this important keynote address on human rights and digital health for Promoting Human Rights in Digital Health and AI Strategies: National and Global Perspectives, an unofficial side event for World Health Assembly 79 from 2-3:30pm CET. The event took place at the Impact Hub Geneva and online, and was co-organised by the Digital Health and Rights Project, STOPAIDS, and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, University of Warwick.

The final text as delivered may differ slightly; the full recording is online.

Dear colleagues, partners, and friends,

It is a privilege to join you at the opening of this important side event organised by the Digital Health and Rights Project consortium.

Digital transformation now permeates all aspects of health: from access to medicines, vaccines, and other health products through digital supply chains and allocation systems; to telemedicine, diagnostics and health responses; to the provision of mental health and psychosocial support; and health responses in times of crisis.

Digital transformation can improve the availability, accessibility and quality of health services, goods and facilities, and plays an important role in supporting the realization of the right to physical and mental health for everyone. But it won’t do so automatically.

Digital transformation and digital technologies in the sphere of healthcare need to be intentionally designed, developed and regulated in line with international human rights law, in order to meaningfully support the full spectrum of the right to health. Today, we have more than enough empirical evidence that not doing so has serious consequences. Allow me to reflect on a couple of well-documented examples:

• Health applications frequently collect highly sensitive personal data, may heighten the risks of privacy violations, exacerbate the risks of unlawful surveillance, and in certain circumstances may even lead to potential criminalization.
• Contact-tracing apps may be useful in slowing the spread of contagious outbreaks – however the data collected can also be misused or intentionally abused, raising serious concerns regarding the right to privacy.
• In cases where safeguards against unlawful surveillance and prohibition on the use of health data are lacking or absent, data breaches – such as those involving women’s sexual and reproductive health data – could even lead to criminalization.
• Systems trained on incomplete or non-representative datasets can reinforce existing patterns of discrimination and even may lead to inaccurate diagnoses or treatment recommendations, particularly for marginalized groups, thereby undermining both the quality and equity of care.
• The evolution of neuro-technology creates urgent privacy risks as devices have gained the ability to access, monitor and influence brain activity.

As such, the digital transformation  of health has a direct impact on the enjoyment of human rights, and requires a coherent, clear and rights-based policy response. Digital health and AI must be designed in such a way that promotes dignity, reflects the concerns and aspirations of all people, and works above all for those most in need. As the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has said, human rights must be “encoded in the DNA” of artificial intelligence and digital technologies.

The first WHO Global Strategy on Digital Health 2020-2027 was developed in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the World Health Organization prepares the next Global Strategy on Digital Health, we have a collective opportunity – and, I would say, an urgent responsibility – to reflect on what has changed since the first strategy was drafted, what we have learned, and how those insights must guide the way forward.

Human rights law provides the principles, standards, and accountability framework needed to guide a rights-based people-centred digital transformation in health.

Taking this as a starting point, allow me to highlight five key priorities:

First, access and inclusion are essential. As health services and information move online, the uneven distribution of digital infrastructure risks widening gaps.  Commonly referred to as the digital divide, women, older persons, persons with disabilities, and communities living in situations of poverty, conflict, or marginalization face digital access barriers that puts them at risk of digital exclusion.

For instance, according to the ITU 2025 report on measuring digital development, while 74 percent of the world’s population is now online, only 23 percent of people in low-income countries have Internet access; an estimated 280 million more men than women use the internet worldwide.

This calls for a two-pronged approach: we must on the one hand, strive to close the digital divide and, at the same time, maintain accessible, non-digital alternatives to health information and services.

Building on the equity commitments in the first strategy, the next Global Strategy on Digital Health should make access and inclusion a core objective and include measurable targets to track global progress.

Second, we must uphold the fundamental human rights principle of equality and non-discrimination. Digital health systems are only as fair and as accurate as the data, assumptions, and institutions that shape them.

Both the Special Rapporteur on the right to health and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights HCHR, have warned  that digital health technologies can perpetuate racism, sexism, ableism and discrimination.

A key human rights concern arises from the lack of accurate and inclusive data, which can directly impact treatment and care models.

One example is settings where populations affected by HIV are criminalized. Individuals may avoid testing, treatment, or disclosure for fear of legal consequences. As a result, official datasets will be incomplete. When digital tools or health software rely on this data, they may underestimate the true scale of need for HIV treatment and care, leading to gaps in resource allocation and service delivery. This, in turn, risks reinforcing existing inequalities and undermining effective public health responses. Similar dynamics of undercounting and misrepresentation can affect other marginalized groups, or stigmatised health conditions, as well.

While lack of accurate data is an important dimension, there is also the issue of lack of,  disaggregated data,  critical to make patterns of discrimination visible. Unfortunately, a study by the Digital Health and Rights Project and University of Warwick of twenty national digital health strategies found that to date very few national strategies analysed disaggregated data and needs of diverse groups or addressed gender inequalities.

The next Global Strategy on Digital Health should champion efforts to change this. This includes the need for not only more inclusive and accurate data, but also better disaggregation, including by gender to promote gender-responsive approaches (as highlighted in GENDRO’s side event this week).

Third, data governance must be strengthened to protect the right to privacy. Governments’ own use of health data needs strong guardrails. Reports from my Office have underscored threats to public trust due to weak governance frameworks, privacy breaches, and extraction and monetization of health data.

The first strategy recognised the need to promote better data governance and to secure privacy. The next strategy must build on this commitment and encourage States to review and strengthen legal and institutional frameworks for health data protection and security, including in anticipation of new and emerging threats: Emerging neurotechnology and brain health developments urgently demand safeguards to protect privacy, cognitive liberty, autonomy, and human dignity.

Health data is by its very nature a sensitive category of data. Robust governance systems and strict purpose limitations are hence of particular importance to mitigate the risks of misuse, unauthorised access and surveillance, including by law enforcement.

As set out in OHCHR`s guidance on the right to privacy in the digital age[1] the collection, processing and use of data by both public and private actors must always be guided by necessity, proportionality, and the principle of do no harm.

This must be coupled by strong transparency, oversight and enforcement to ensure that people`s right over their own data are real and meaningful in practice.

Fourth, States must regulate private actors effectively. As power over health data and digital infrastructure becomes increasingly concentrated in private hands, robust public oversight is essential.

The Global Strategy should affirm that the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights apply in digital health.

Companies that develop, procure, host, or deploy digital tools and platforms must respect human rights, and States should ensure that companies mitigate human rights impacts and allow for restrictions, including prohibitions on technology when sufficient guardrails are not in place.

As part of this, digital technologies must be developed and deployed with due diligence and care. Risks must be identified early; transparency and accountability must be built into design, procurement, deployment, and regulation; impacts must be monitored continuously; and safeguards must be adapted in a timely manner. Where technologies pose unacceptable human rights risks, their use should be paused until adequate guardrails are in place.

In this regard the United Nations is seeking to lead by example. The recently developed Secretary-General’s guidance on Human Rights Due Diligence for Digital Technology Use[2] supports UN entities in identifying, preventing, mitigating, and addressing human rights risks across the digital technology lifecycle. This is one example of  a practical model of due diligence. What is critical for the next Global Strategy on Digital Health is to call for a more systematic and consistent application of due diligence.

Fifth, accountability and access to remedy must be built in from the outset.  Diverse people and communities must know their rights in the digital age and be empowered to use judicial and non-judicial grievance mechanisms to report harm and seek timely redress.

Investing in digital rights literacy and robust accountability mechanisms is critical. States should be called upon to increase an individual’s capacity to recognise and understand harm. This is critical, especially in a fast-moving environment in which the potential harms may be insufficiently understood, or not yet visible.

Under the UN Global Digital Compact, OHCHR has been tasked with the crucial role of providing advice to States and indeed regulatory bodies to ensure that use of digital technologies is aligned with human rights.

Our human rights advisory service on digital technologies advises States and regulators, and crucially technical standard-setting bodies the world-over on this crucial topic.

To help businesses to comply with human rights norms and standards, OHCHR has launched a business and human rights help desk: a one-stop shop for businesses seeking authoritative advice on the meaning and application of the UN Guiding Principles.

Finally, the right to participation, grounded in human rights to freedom of expression and opinion, must be upheld in new forms of review and co-creation. Governance of digital health cannot remain State-centric or expert-only. All of us whose lives and health are affected by digital tools must be able to shape the rules and the systems that govern those tools. It is essential for digital health strategies to succeed.

We need the voices of different segments of society, including the youth, as well as civil society, affected communities, health care workers, technologists, human rights experts and academics.

In conclusion, the impacts of digital technologies are one of the defining challenges of our time. In the sphere of healthcare, if we get it right, they can strengthen health systems and improve lives in ways that are equitable, inclusive, and sustainable.

The 2024 Global Digital Compact affirmed the need for a digital future that upholds human rights. The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS+20) review in 2025 also called on us to uphold human rights and ethics in the information society.

In line with international human rights norms and standards, the next Global Strategy on Digital Health should help ensure that digital transformation advances availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality in health systems, while preventing discrimination, protecting privacy, strengthening due diligence and accountability, and ensuring the right to an effective remedy.

I urge member States together with all  stakeholders working on the next strategy to ensure that human rights remain at the centre of global, regional and national digital health governance.

We stand ready to support those efforts.

Thank you.

[1] A/HRC/60/45: The right to privacy in the digital age – Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights | OHCHR

[2] Human Rights Due Diligence for Digital Technology Use – Guidance of the Secretary-General | OHCHR