Join us tomorrow at 9–10:30am EST / 3–4:30pm CEST / 4–5:30pm EAT for our online event, ‘Contesting the Foundations of Digital Public Infrastructure: What Digital ID Litigation Can Tell Us About the Future of Digital Government and Society.’
A new consensus is emerging among policymakers around the world: digital public infrastructure (DPI) will shape the future of government and society. DPI refers to large-scale digital platforms that are built, funded, or supported by governments to enable the provision of essential society-wide services, and that are designed and governed in service of the public good. DPI is promoted as helping to safeguard against the excesses of surveillance capitalism by increasing public control and governance over online platforms, to advance inclusive development, and to accelerate the transition to more efficient online public services.
At the base of many DPI initiatives lie digital identification systems. These large-scale systems, which allow for the verification of certain details about the identity of individuals, are seen as foundational to DPI because they underlie and enable many other key services such as banking, voting, or social protection.
But these digital ID systems remain heavily contested, and legal challenges are underway in numerous countries around the world. These cases raise serious human rights issues that have arisen surrounding the rollout of such digital systems, including heightened risks of surveillance, discriminatory algorithmic sorting, and exclusion from social services, among others. The diversity of human rights concerns raised in these ongoing legal challenges suggests that further critical discourse and enhanced safeguards are required as the foundations of DPI are designed and implemented.
Tomorrow, Wednesday 21st June, at 9–10:30am EST / 3–4:30pm CEST / 4–5:30pm EAT, we will explore these issues in our online event, ‘Contesting the Foundations of Digital Public Infrastructure: What Digital ID Litigation Can Tell Us About the Future of Digital Government and Society.’ We will discuss four recent case studies of digital ID related litigation from Uganda, Mexico, Serbia, and Kenya. Expert speakers who have been at the forefront of efforts to raise the human rights concerns at hand will discuss the current evidence around human rights risks and the key questions surrounding the digital ID systems deployed within their countries. They will also look forward, to assess whether some of the remedies sought in these cases might form an emerging model of the human rights safeguards required in efforts to roll out DPI. They will explore how the issues raised in each case may provide valuable lessons for the future of DPI.
Keynote Speaker:
Nanjala Nyabola, author, political analyst, and activist
Panelists:
Elizabeth Atori, Legal Officer at the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (Uganda)
Grecia Macías, Lawyer at the Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales (Mexico)
Danilo Ćurčić, Program Coordinator at the A11 Initiative for Economic and Social Rights (Serbia)
Yasah Musa, Project Manager at the Nubian Rights Forum (Kenya)