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Human Rights in the Digital Era: Technological Evolution and a Return to Natural Law

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Digital Humanism

Abstract

Millions of people worldwide lack a national identity, thus making universal legal identity one of the core targets of Sustainable Development Goal 16: “Peace, justice and strong institutions”. With the advancement of digital technologies, we are approaching the possibility of a framework in which each human being can be identified and recognized as a person regardless of their state of origin, and maintain some level of protection independent of any one given nation state or legal system. Technologies like decentralized solutions and new-age data governance solutions are leading to the fulfilment of Article 6 of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law”. In this paper we explore the global identity challenge and emerging models for new identity and governance frameworks.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This definition is intentionally taken from Wikipedia to illustrate just how mainstream the concept has become.

  2. 2.

    Café La Fabric (Madrid), November 15, 2019. Artificial Intelligence: concrete applications in biometric identification. Ethical concerns and legal protection in an EU perspective.

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Correspondence to Mario Di Giulio .

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Schultz, A., Di Giulio, M. (2022). Human Rights in the Digital Era: Technological Evolution and a Return to Natural Law. In: Bertolaso, M., Capone, L., Rodríguez-Lluesma, C. (eds) Digital Humanism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97054-3_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97054-3_9

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-97053-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-97054-3

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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