Statement by India during the Panel discussion on the impacts, opportunities and challenges of new and emerging digital technologies with regard to the promotion and protection of human rights at the 44th Session of the Human Rights Council delivered by Mr. Animesh Choudhury, First Secretary on 08th July 2020.
Thank You Chair,
1. It is extremely unfortunate that the delegation of Pakistan has yet again chosen to misuse this forum with their deceitful political propaganda by weaving fake narratives, lies, disinformation campaign while making unwarranted references to internal matters of my country. This is neither in the interest of time nor proper constructive dialogue in such an august platform. India would urge the delegation of Pakistan not to deviate from the serious agenda of these panel discussions. It is well known that India’s decision in Jammu and Kashmir is within our sovereign right and is an internal matter of India. Jammu and Kashmir is an integral and inalienable part of India. Hence we would advise Pakistan to rather rectify its ongoing structural discrimination and policies against its minorities. It would do well for Pakistan to see themselves as others see them. For others, it is the epicentre of global terrorism. For others, it’s a failed State where the concept of accountability and justice for its religious minorities, political dissidents, human rights defenders, civil society organizations, journalists are obliterated from its limited lexicon on rule of law, democracy and human rights.
Madam Chair,
Coming back to the subject under discussion in this panel, India thanks the panellists for their insightful presentations.
Madam Chair,
2. We believe that although technology itself is neutral, its design, deployment and access to its benefits are not. The new and emerging technologies bring in issues such as widening the existing digital divide, issues of privacy, cyber security and most importantly raise several ethical questions. There also exists considerable information gap amongst various stakeholders on the importance, understanding and implications of new and emerging technologies which further complicates the issue.
Madam Chair,
3. Effective Digital Cooperation is the key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. New and emerging technologies need to be well harnessed, pragmatically designed and developed, factoring in the concerns of ethics and privacy. This has been well expressed in the report of the United Nations Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation. We also take note with appreciation of the initiative of the United Nations Human Rights Office in launching the Business and Human Rights in Technology Project also known as the B-Tech Project.
4. The ongoing Digital revolution in India would transform the socio-economic framework of the country in the coming years. The National Knowledge Network in India is a state-of-the-art Pan-India network that connects hundreds of educational institutes. One of the revolutionary initiatives in the last decade in the sphere of ICT enabled socio-economic development in the country has been Aadhar, a strategic policy tool for social and financial inclusion, public sector delivery reforms, managing fiscal budgets that increases convenience and promotes hassle-free people centric governance. At the global level, India is a signatory of the Christchurch Call which brings together countries and technology companies to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. India has also joined the recently launched Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI).
Madam Chair,
5. We believe that there is a need for greater international cooperation and better governance to address such issues. Addressing ethical questions, questions on privacy, scaling down costs, bridging the information gap and improving access and bringing in implementation modalities are of prime importance.
Thank You.
