7th Glion Human Rights Dialogue - GI-ESCR insists on maintaining democratic control over public services in the digital age

GI-ESCR participated in the 7th Glion Human Rights Dialogue, the annual high-level event on human rights, gathering around 100 States and several international organisations. GI-ESCR, represented by its Senior Legal and Research Advisor Sylvain Aubry, insisted on the importance of maintaining democratic control over public services, should they relate to education, health care, water, or other services, even where digital technologies are involved. This requires not only regulating corporate actors, but also encouraging alternatives to transnational corporations, such as public or civil society-led initiatives. Digital technology, he said, is not a silver bullet.

A narrative has developed suggesting that online learning and technology can play a key role in resolving challenges faced by social services, such as education, health and other services. This raises serious questions related to human rights, to the impacts of commodification of services and of the public good, related to the quality and control of these services.
Transferring control of more and more public service provision to private, unaccountable and non-democratic actors can only reinforce power inequalities, drive away public control over essential services that are related to economic, social and cultural rights.
Technology will have a positive impact on social services if it is democratically controlled. Commodification entails financial interest. Social services must remain in the public sphere. Not necessarily the State, but people and their rights.
Legal safeguards have to be established and democratic or public initiatives encouraged, or we will simply miss the target: people, instead of profit.

Sylvain Aubry, at VII Glion Human Rights Dialogue.

See related news from 30 October on GI-ESCR’s participation in the preparatory dialogues to this high-level event: Human rights in the digital age: GI-ESCR participates in dialogue with permanent missions in Geneva, featuring our key arguments.

The Glion Human Rights Dialogue

The Glion Human Rights Dialogue is an annual high-level retreat, hosted by the Governments of Norway and Switzerland, which brings together around sixty senior policy-makers and other stakeholders in an informal, non-attributable setting designed to promote open, forward-looking and solutions-focused debate. The Glion Human Rights Dialogue provides a platform for representatives of states, OHCHR, the wider UN, and other key parts of the human rights system such as Special Procedure mandate-holders, members of Treaty Bodies, and NGOs, to offer their assessment of the key challenges they face and their vision of how to best overcome them to strengthen the Council and the wider UN human rights system. The discussions are summarised in informal reports presenting some of the key messages, ideas and recommendations, which seek to encourage and contribute to wider consideration of the issues.