A/HRC/43/29 I. Introduction 1. New technologies, including digital technologies, have enormous potential and profound implications for the realization of economic, social and cultural rights, as well as all other human rights, and for the transformative changes envisioned by the world leaders in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.1 New technologies can rapidly expand the quality of and access to many essential services and products for the realization of economic, social and cultural rights. At the same time, they involve significant risks in potentially exacerbating existing gaps and inequalities and creating new ones. Furthermore, the benefits of new technologies are not currently distributed equally across and within countries. Some digital technologies often have unanticipated adverse consequences. Digital divides and technology gaps exist between and within countries, between men and women, between generations and across social groups. Many of these gaps correspond to differences in infrastructure, access and capacities, as well as to deeply entrenched discrimination and inequalities. 2. There is a significant risk that new technologies could further exacerbate and entrench existing inequality and patterns of discrimination, leaving those who do not have access to technologies even further behind. The people most heavily affected by these risks are likely to be at the margins of society. As stated by the Secretary-General’s independent High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation, in its 2019 report, “[a]s any new technology is developed, we should ask how it might inadvertently create new ways of violating rights – especially of people who are already often marginalized or discriminated against”. 2 3. The focus of the present report, submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 40/12, is the role of new technologies for the realization of economic, social and cultural rights. In the report, the Secretary-General highlights the value of a human rightsbased approach to harnessing the potential of new technologies while addressing potential risks, an approach that views people as individual holders of rights, empowers them and promotes a legal and institutional environment to enforce their rights and to seek redress for any human rights violations and abuses. The report concludes with recommendations to States and other stakeholders to guide them towards ensuring better human rights outcomes when designing, developing and deploying new technologies. II. Impact of new technologies on key economic, social and cultural rights 4. With its central commitment to leave no one behind, the 2030 Agenda has given important political impetus to the realization of economic, social and cultural rights and efforts to address inequality. If harnessed and distributed equitably, new technologies could greatly facilitate the realization of economic, social and cultural rights, and help ensure that their key elements of availability, affordability, accessibility and quality are achieved. 5. New technologies open opportunities for “leapfrogging” – bypassing intermediate stages of technology through which countries have historically passed during the 1 2 2 There is no universally agreed definition of “new technologies”, which are often interchangeably referred to as “frontier technologies” or “emerging technologies”. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has mapped some of the most commonly identified new technologies into four quadrants that represent broad technological areas: digital technologies (such as artificial intelligence, big data analytics, the Internet of things, robotics and blockchain); biotechnologies (such as stem cell technology and health monitoring technology); advanced materials (such as nanomaterials); and energy and environment (such as drones, microsatellites, electric vehicles and biofuels) (see OECD, OECD Science, Technology and Innovation Outlook 2016 (Paris, 2016)). Given the multitude of new technologies, the present report focuses on a selective set of digital and other new technologies that have significant relevance to economic, social and cultural rights. High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation, “The age of digital interdependence: report of the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation”, June 2019, p. 17.