Estonia, 2025 Chair of the Freedom Online Coalition (FOC), will host a multistakeholder consultation on the FOC’s draft Rights-Respecting Digital Public Infrastructure Principles during the 2025 EuroDIG Conference, taking place in Strasbourg, France from 12 – 14 May. For more information on EuroDIG and to register your attendance, visit the following link: https://www.eurodig.org/.
Session Overview:
Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) are digital technologies that can enable the delivery of public services. There are three functional categories of DPI: digital identity systems, digital payment systems, and data exchanges. It is crucial for such systems to have built in safeguards that ensure human rights commitments are adhered to in their design and implementation. During the session, we want to hear perspectives from the community on how the design and implementation of DPI can balance the benefits of digital innovation with the protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms. Whether through examples of successful approaches or lessons learned. We will explore the most critical safeguards that should be in place to prevent DPI from exacerbating discrimination, exclusion, or other human rights harms. We also seek to discuss how governments, civil society, the private sector and technical experts can collaborate to ensure accountability within DPI processes and how these can include access to redress. Lastly, we invite EuroDIG participants to look ahead and provide suggestions on the emerging risks and opportunities that stakeholders, especially governments, should anticipate as DPI continues to evolve, and what steps can be taken to proactively start addressing the potential human rights challenges on the horizon.
2023 Freedom Online Coalition