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Geneva Academy>
3 February 2025
At the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2025, the Geneva Human Rights Platform (GHRP) contributed to key discussions on AI, human rights, and sustainable digital governance. Invited to speak at the House of Pioneers, hosted by AEIR, Dr. Domenico Zipoli, Project Coordinator at the GHRP, presented insights on the intersection of digital human rights tracking tools, artificial intelligence (AI), and sustainable approaches to funding human rights monitoring at two panels: one on impact investment and another under the title Africa Ascends.
The theme of this year’s WEF, ‘Collaboration for the Intelligent Age,’ set the stage for discussions on how emerging technologies can enhance governance, accountability, and rights-based policymaking.
A key message from GHRP’s interventions was the redefinition of data as infrastructure—a crucial foundation for transparency, accountability, and evidence-based decision-making in human rights and sustainable development. Building on the findings of GHRP’s latest publication, The Human Rights Data Revolution, Dr. Zipoli underscored the importance of interoperable, AI-enhanced digital tools in tracking the implementation of human rights commitments globally.
‘Just as roads and bridges connect economies, data connects human rights policies to real-world impact,’ noted Dr. Zipoli. ‘If we want to strengthen compliance with international human rights frameworks and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we must treat data governance as a critical pillar of modern governance.’
At the Impact Investment panel, Dr. Zipoli explored how digital human rights tracking tools can benefit from long-term, sustainable funding models. While impact investment and private-sector engagement can help drive innovation, he stressed that human rights monitoring must remain independent, rights-based, and free from undue influence.
‘Impact investment can help expand digital monitoring solutions beyond traditional funding models, enhancing their resilience and adaptability to global challenges. However, sustaining digital human rights monitoring requires ensuring that these investments do not undermine the independence or ethical governance of these tools,’ Dr. Zipoli emphasized.
During the Africa Ascends discussion, Dr. Zipoli highlighted how African nations are leveraging digital technologies to strengthen human rights monitoring and governance. He highlighted data governance as key to sovereignty, accountability, and policymaking, citing the African Union’s Continental AI Strategy and locally developed tools like HURIDOCS’ Uwazi and locally implemented tools like OHCHR’s National Recommendations Tracking Database (NRTD), which support civil society, NHRIs, and governments in managing human rights data.
He stressed the need for data sovereignty to ensure African-led digital governance and pointed to HRMI’s Rights Tracker and the CCPR Centre’s AI-powered pilot project in the DRC, which strengthen localized, evidence-based monitoring. ‘By investing in homegrown AI solutions,a number of African best practices are joining Latin American and Pacific states as leaders in ethical technology governance,’ he stated, while cautioning against over-reliance on external AI and emphasizing human rights-centric approaches.
Beyond the House of Pioneers, the GHRP was represented as founding member of ITU’s AI Skills Coalition, which was officially launched at the AI House in Davos.
As momentum grows around ethical AI, digital monitoring, and sustainable funding, GHRP continues to push for transparency, accountability, and interoperability. Its newly launched publication, AI Decoded: Key Concepts and Applications of AI for Human Rights and SDG Monitoring, examines AI’s potential and challenges for human rights and SDG. GHRP will integrate these insights into ongoing collaborations with OHCHR, UNDP, ITU’s AI for Good initiative and HURIDOCS, ensuring AI-driven human rights tracking remains ethical, inclusive, and rights-based.
News
Geneva Academy
The Geneva Human Rights Platform is launching its 2025 training programme, designed to empower stakeholders engaging with UN human rights system.
News
Geneva Academy
The 2024 Annual Conference of the Geneva Human Rights Platform (GHRP), held on 5 November at Maison de la Paix, focused on the theme Human Rights System Under Pressure: A Reason to Expand Connectivity.
Training
Adobe
This training course, specifically designed for staff of city and regional governments, will explore the means and mechanisms through which local and regional governments can interact with and integrate the recommendations of international human rights bodies in their concrete work at the local level.
Training
Participants in this training course will be introduced to the major international and regional instruments for the promotion of human rights, as well as international environmental law and its implementation and enforcement mechanisms.
Project
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This research aims at mainstreaming the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment and the protection it affords in the work of the UN Human Rights Council, its Special Procedures and Universal Periodic Review, as well as in the work of the UN General Assembly and UN treaty bodies.
Project
CCPR Centre
The Geneva Human Rights Platform collaborates with a series of actors to reflect on the implementation of international human rights norms at the local level and propose solutions to improve uptake of recommendations and decisions taken by Geneva-based human rights bodies at the local level.
Publication
Geneva Academy
