The Freedom Online Coalition (FOC) has issued a Joint Statement on Technical Standards and Human Rights in the Context of Digital Technologies. The drafting of the statement was led by the 2024 Chair of the FOC, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with input from Coalition Members states and members of the multistakeholder FOC Advisory Network.
The statement recognizes that human rights need to be promoted, respected, protected and fulfilled through the entirety of digital technologies’ lifecycle, including through their conception, design, development, deployment, use, evaluation and regulation, underscoring the importance of integrating a human rights perspective into regulatory and norm-setting processes for digital technologies.
The statement encourages all stakeholders to establish procedures to implement effective multistakeholder processes, and to apply a human rights-based approach and uphold accountability and transparency for the outcomes of multistakeholder standard-development processes. The statement further outlines calls to action for States, Standard Developing Organisations, and all stakeholders engaged in standard-development processes.
The FOC aims to strengthen multistakeholder coordination on and support for the implementation and development of international standards to help ensure that digital technologies, throughout their lifecycle, reflect the Members’ shared commitment to an open, free and secure cyberspace in which human rights and fundamental freedoms are fully respected, promoted and protected.
In addition to the 41 Member States of the FOC, the statement has also been endorsed by Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Portugal, and Romania.
To view the full statement, view the document below or visit the following page.
