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Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies

im961 - Global Digital Health and Human Rights

IM961
Global Digital Health and Human Rights








IM961

20/30 (CORE) CATS - (10/15 ECTS)
Optional module for all CIM taught PG students
SPRING BREAK

How are digital technologies and spaces reshaping our human rights, including the right to health?

Many countries face challenges in fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on health, including the commitment to “leave no one behind”. The digital transformation offers new possibilities, but also new risks.

This one-week intensive module explores how the digital transformation of health is shaping human rights, and how human rights are changing in turn, focusing on the governance of health data, access to digital technologies and the Internet, and the risks and benefits of artificial intelligence in diverse development and humanitarian interventions. Students will think through real-world applications of human rights principles in diverse international case studies, and reflect on the changing meanings of human rights in the digital age, as well as how human rights are reinterpreted and "translated" in local contexts. They will collaborate to learn how to engage with the United Nations human rights system to share evidence and promote the right to health in the digital age, reflecting on the limitations and the potential of the human rights system, formed in the 20th century, to meet new and emerging challenges in the future.

Module Convenor - Professor Meg Davis

Assessment

  • Independent study assignment (all students)
  • Research report (all students)
  • Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Physical and Mental Health (all students)
  • Group presentation to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Physical and Mental Health (all students)
  • Reflection on evidence standards (30 CATs only)

Indicative Syllabus

Introductory session: Introduction to human rights

Independent study

One-week intensive:

Day One: Introduction to digital transformations of health and digital health governance

Day Two: The digital welfare state and human rights

Day Three: Quantification and participatory approaches to data

Day Four: Artificial intelligence and algorithmic inequalities

Day Five: Mock hearing and student presentations

Illustrative Bibliography

Achiume, E. Tendayi. ‘Racial Discrimination and Emerging Digital Technologies: A Human Rights Analysis: Report of the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance*’. United Nations, 18 June 2020. https://undocs.org/pdf?symbol=en/A/HRC/44/57.

Alston, Philip. ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights**’. United Nations, 11 October 2019. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ESq1NJzkpTorjtNB-yGWVF_Qh8fxJUfk/edit.

Corrêa, Nicholas Kluge, Camila Galvão, James William Santos, Carolina Del Pino, Edson Pontes Pinto, Camila Barbosa, Diogo Massmann, et al. ‘Worldwide AI Ethics: A Review of 200 Guidelines and Recommendations for AI Governance’. Patterns 4, no. 10 (October 2023): 100857. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patter.2023.100857.

Davis, Sara L. M., ed. The Uncounted: Politics of Data in Global Health. Cambridge Studies in Law and Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.

Davis SLM, Pham T, Kpodo I, et al Digital health and human rights of young adults in Ghana, Kenya and Vietnam: a qualitative participatory action research study BMJ Global Health 2023;8:e011254.

Heidari, Shirin, and Heather Doyle. ‘VIEWPOINT An Invitation to a Feminist Approach to Global Health Data’. Health and Human Rights Journal (blog), 8 December 2020. https://www.hhrjournal.org/2020/12/viewpoint-an-invitation-to-a- feminist-approach-to-global-health-data/.

Holly, Louise. ‘Health in the Digital Age: Where Do Children’s Rights Fit In?’ Health and Human Rights 22, no. 2 (December 2020): 49–54.

Kuntsman, Adi, Esperanza Miyake, and Sam Martin. ‘Re-Thinking Digital Health: Data, Appisation and the (Im)Possibility of “Opting Out”’. Digital Health 5 (9 October 2019): 2055207619880671. https://doi.org/10.1177/2055207619880671.

Nemer, David. Technology of the Oppressed: Inequity and the Digital Mundane in Favelas of Brazil. The MIT Press, 2022. https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5266/Technology-of-the-OppressedInequity-and-the.

Seaver, Nick. ‘What Should an Anthropology of Algorithms Do?’ Chicago, IL, 2013. http://nickseaver.net/papers/seaverAAA2013.pdf.

Sekalala S, Chatikobo T. Colonialism in the new digital health agenda BMJ Global Health 2024;9:e014131.

Shaw, James, and Sharifah Sekalala. ‘Health Data Justice: Building New Norms for Health Data Governance.’ Npj Digit. Med. 6, no. 30 (2023).

Srinivasan, Ramesh. Whose Global Village? Rethinking How Technology Shapes Our World. New York, New York: New York University Press, 2017.

STOPAIDS. The Principles of Meaningful Involvement of Communities and Civil Society in Global Health Governance. Report, 2023. https://stopaids.org.uk/resources/6076/.

Trascasas, Milena Costas. “Assessing the Human Rights Impact of Neurotechnology.” Human Rights Council Advisory Committee no. 28, 2022.

UN Human Rights Council. Digital innovation, technologies and the right to health. A/HRC/53.65. Report by the UN
Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health. 21 April 2023. https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic- reports/ahrc5365-digital-innovation-technologies-and-right- health#:~:text=The%20Special%20Rapporteur%20shares%20the,%2C%20accountability%2C%20reparations%20and%20priv

UN Human Rights Council. ‘Promotion and Protection of Human Rights on the Internet’. UN General Assembly, 16 July 2012. https://doi.org/10.1163/2210-7975_HRD-9970-2016149.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

  1. Demonstrate an understanding of the digital transformation of health as an area of social and technical innovation that is both affected by and has an effect on human rights in diverse contexts
  2. Demonstrate a conceptual and practical understanding of digital health governance
  3. Demonstrate mastery of human rights principles and standards that apply to health-related technology and that can affect the design and implementation of digital interventions for health in diverse settings
  4. Reflect on human rights issues that are emergent in the design and governance of data, digital technologies and artificial intelligence in the context of global health
  5. Offer policy recommendations grounded in evidence and human rights norms, and develop approaches to integrating human rights into the design, implementation and evaluation of digital health strategies, frameworks and policies
  6. Prepare submissions suitable for United Nations human rights mechanisms