Human rights in ICT standardisation
At the seminar on Human Rights and ICT Standardisation, organised by the European Commission together with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and supported by StandICT.eu and INSTAR, experts discussed on how can ICT standards ensure that human rights are upheld in the era of new and emerging technologies
Standards determine what technology can and cannot do
ICT standards are invisible to everyday users, but they determine how technologies function, what data they collect, how systems communicate, and which protections are built in from the start. Standards can actively enable or restrict risks such as surveillance, bias, exclusion, and privacy violations. Human rights are not simply a legal issue layered on afterwards, they are increasingly becoming an engineering issue.
The webinar suggested that as technologies such as AI, immersive virtual worlds, and advanced connectivity systems become more integrated into society, technical communities are being asked to translate legal principles into operational systems.
The Human Rights Task Force contribution presented by Gyu Myoung Lee outlined an approach that begins with awareness at the earliest stages of standard development. Technical groups are encouraged to identify potential risks early, including: surveillance, privacy violations, accessibility barriers, algorithmic bias and discrimination.
The concerns are integrated into checkpoints throughout the drafting process, from the first work item to final adoption. That represents a significant cultural change: technology governance is gradually shifting away from the “move fast and fix problems later” mindset towards something more preventative and accountable.
A single standard can affect billions
Once a standard is adopted, its impact scales globally, and getting it right from the start is not optional, that’s why standardisation matters so much. A technical standard can influence entire industries across borders for years, this creates an unusual kind of responsibility for standards organisations, their decisions are rarely visible to the public, yet they can affect billions of people. This highlights how difficult it becomes to correct problems once standards are widely implemented. Prevention, therefore, may be the only realistic option.
The future of rights in AI, the metaverse, and next-generation networks will be negotiated in technical committees, working groups, and standard-setting forums. These spaces rarely attract public attention, yet their influence is immense. The future of human rights may depend not only on what societies choose to regulate, but also on what engineers choose to standardise. And as emerging technologies become harder to separate from everyday life, that distinction may matter more than ever.