Reconciling Technology and Human Rights

10 December 2018

In a time of rapidly developing technology, it is important to consider the ethical implications associated with the development and use of new systems to ensure they are created to support equality and fairness across all facets of society.

To this end, this year we partnered with the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) to launch the International Human Rights and Technology Project – a landmark inquiry into the challenges of protecting our fundamental rights and freedoms in the technological and data-driven age.  The aim of this project is to identify the challenges and opportunities presented by technology, conduct further research to develop an appropriate response and ultimately achieve an effective framework on how to protect and promote our human rights in a time of unregulated technological progression.

As part of the project, the AHRC published an Issues Paper calling for submissions from industry, academic, civil society and government experts on their views on how to best protect the Australian individual’s rights.  These submissions are now available on the AHRC’s website and the final report and recommendations will be released in late 2019.

Our submission was based on our underlying mission: to advance the rule of law.  While technology has benefited both public and private sectors in terms of efficiency, we suggest that the current Australian laws are unable to sufficiently regulate the way in which technology is impacting on human rights.  We believe strongly in adhering to legal frameworks which uphold this principle and have therefore submitted several suggestions on how the current Australian legislation can be reinforced and developed to better serve this purpose.

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