Human rights must be at the centre of digital health governance, says a University of Warwick academic and a group of international global health and human rights experts attending the 77th World Health Assembly in Geneva this week.

Members of the Digital Health and Rights Project (DHRP) are in Geneva for the World Health Assembly, May 25th-30th, to call for digital health governance that meets the needs of diverse young adults in developing countries.

The Digital Health and Rights Project (DHRP) brings together international social scientists, human rights lawyers, health advocates, and networks of people living with HIV, to conduct research and advocate for rights-based digital governance in Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, Vietnam, and globally.

The DHRP is using a transnational participatory action research approach to studying the future of human rights in the digital age from the view of young adults in their diversity.

Professor Meg Davis from the University of Warwick & the Principal Investigator of DHRP, says “The current techno-optimism is beginning to give way as we see that digital technologies can also cause harms, given longstanding inequalities of racism, sexism, ableism and discrimination. We need more frank discussions at the WHA about the harms and how to prevent them.”

Allan Maleche, Executive Director of the Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDS (KELIN) and winner of the Elizabeth Taylor Human Rights Award, notes, “With all theglobal excitement about digital health, human rights has been an after-thought. More needs tobe done to support countries to address these issues.” Maleche will co-chair DHRP’s WHA side event with WHO, UN Human Rights Office, and civil society groups.

Sarah Simms, Policy Officer, Privacy International, explains the Project wants to ensure that people can freely, safely and equally enjoy their right to health by ensuring that governments, companies and global health standard setting bodies adopt a rights-based approach when adopting new technologies in health.

Sarah is a panel speaker at the upcoming DHRP side event ‘Achieving Universal Health Coverage through an inclusive and rights-based digital transformation’ during the Assembly. She says “Our research shows that femtech creates realprivacy risks for women and girls. We are calling for effective governance of the use of tech inthe health sector, and for the accountability of governments, global institutions and companies.”

DHRP has a strong commitment to voice for young adults at every level of the project, with Community Advisory Teams representing a mix of young adults, human rights and health advocates in each country where DHRP conducts research. Martin Ame-Nuquaye, representing the Ghana Community Advisory Team, says “Youth must be at the centre of strategies, policiesand governance of digital health. We need more investment and commitment to digital literacyand youth consultation”

ENDS
The Digital Health and Rights Project is a consortium including the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+), Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network on HIV & AIDS , Privacy International, Restless Development, STOPAIDS, Universidad de los Andes in Colombia, and is hosted by University of Warwick in the United Kingdom.

More information: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/cim/research/digital-health-rights/

The Digital Health and Rights Project is co-hosting a side event on May 29th with DTH-Lab, with representatives from the WHO, UN Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights and civil society and community-led organisations.

Title: Achieving UHC through an inclusive and rights-based digital transformation
Date: 29 May 2024
Time: 15:00 - 17:00 CEST, including networking apero.
Place: Campus BioTech, Geneva (Chem. des Mines 9, 1202 Genève).
Registration: To attend in-person RSVP to molly-pj@stopaids.org.uk. To attend online register here.

All those quoted are available to interview.
For media inquiries contact Jake Atkinson (jake@stopaids.org.uk)
For other inquiries contact Molly Pugh-Jones (molly-pj@stopaids.org.uk)
Connect with us: @DigHealthRights