A/HRC/43/29 started to counter these trends by taxing real estate acquisitions by external investors or introducing regulations with stricter controls on short-term rentals, in order to protect access to adequate housing for their residents. 15 However, as technologies and the platform economy evolve at a rapid pace, they have tended to reinforce existing patterns of social and spatial segregation, exclusion and dispossession of housing and land. Regulatory frameworks seeking to counteract such effects remain piecemeal in the absence of a comprehensive approach fully taking human rights into account. E. Right to work 28. The global wave of technology changes is having a profound impact on the future of jobs, posing both opportunities and challenges for the realization of the right to work, including the right to the enjoyment of just and favourable conditions of work. Automation and new technologies are creating new job opportunities, while eliminating others. Robots and automation can reduce or eliminate hazardous tasks and contribute to the right to safe working conditions. At the same time, many workers who are at risk of losing their jobs to automation and robotization may be forced to accept lower-skilled and lower-paying jobs. The changing nature of jobs requires new skill sets, particularly digital skills: digital technologies are used in all types of jobs, including in sectors previously less associated with such technologies, such as agriculture, health and construction. 16 When it comes to the impact of such technological changes on different age groups, an emerging challenge is the need for adaptation and the retraining and relocation of adults, particularly older persons, affected by technological shifts. Women are also at the risk of losing out in the workplace because of the digital gender gap, in terms of skills, participation in digitization processes and representation in the workforce and corporate leadership (A/HRC/35/9, para. 25). 29. New technologies are also creating a growing diversity of employment forms, including work done outside of an employer’s premises, often at home, which may widen access to employment and bring additional benefits in, for example, social and environmental spheres. However, while digital service platforms may create new work opportunities and help stabilize informal work arrangements, many workers in the gig economy face greater precarity in their work situation. Employment arrangements of this sort are often temporary in nature and involve multiple employers, impeding or restricting employees’ practical ability to exercise their right to freedom of association, including the right to form and join trade unions, as most workers on online platforms do not know each other and their working patterns and conditions vary greatly.17 F. Inclusion through digital technology 30. Many new technological solutions have the potential to enhance the inclusion of marginalized people in development processes, positively affecting various human rights. For example, providing the means for identification is an important way to empower people to participate in social, economic, political and public life. Conversely, not being able to prove one’s identity can severely inhibit, and even effectively block, access to essential services, including housing, social security, banking, health care and telecommunications. Lack of proof of identity can lead to people being wrongly deemed not to have any citizenship, thus leading to statelessness. From the perspective of governmental functions, identity systems can be an important tool for Governments to avoid duplication and fraud and facilitate planning and accurate targeting of resources. 15 16 17 For example, in British Colombia, Canada, the Miscellaneous Statutes (Housing Priority Initiatives) Amendment Act (2016) imposed 20-per-cent tax for foreign buyers of residential properties in selected geographic areas. See European Commission, ICT for Work: Digital Skills in the Workplace (Brussels, 2016). European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, Protecting Workers in Online Platform Economy: An Overview of Regulatory and Policy Developments in the EU (Luxembourg, 2017), pp. 15–16. 7