The digital rights check

The acceleration in implementing digital projects which bring together technical development and development finance has resulted in calls for precautions. The misuse of digital technologies can inadvertently aggravate underlying patterns of discrimination and exclusion and may also bolster the authoritarian tendencies of certain regimes by enhancing their surveillance capabilities.

Against this backdrop, the Danish Institute for Human Rights and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), have developed the Digital Rights Check. As a human rights assessment and guidance tool the Digital Rights Check is specially developed for staff and partners working in technical development cooperation and in development finance working on digital projects.

The tool allows users to select from several channels, based on the different types of stakeholders involved in digital for development projects, to conduct their review. This includes a track specific to GIZ and their policies and procedures; a track that can be used in a broader sense for technical development cooperation and finally a track that can be used by development finance institutions.

The Digital Rights Check will assist users in taking a human rights-based approach to their projects and will ask relevant questions and provide guidance. The tool is not a compliance exercise that will end up in a “go” or “no go” conclusion based on a traffic light system, but rather will help identifying potential risks and how they can be addressed.