Social Structures
Authors: Léa Urzel, PhD Researcher ERC Project DANCING, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, Department of Law, Maynooth University and Matthew McKenna, PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s ALL Institute, Research Funded through the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies (ADVANCE CRT)
Last Wednesday, 26 January 2022, the European Commission (the Commission) released a draft Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade (the Declaration) for the European Parliament and Council to discuss and eventually endorse. With this initiative, the Commission aims to provide a reference point for all involved in the European Union’s (EU) digital transformation and to guide policy makers as well as private actors working with new technologies.
Last week’s Declaration responds to calls from the Parliament to ensure strong consumer protection and the respect of fundamental rights and principles (e.g. non-discrimination, data protection, net neutrality) in approaching the EU’s digital transformation. It further builds on previous Council initiatives, including the Tallinn Declaration on eGovernment, the Berlin Declaration on Digital Society and Value-Based Digital Government, and the Lisbon Declaration – Digital Democracy with a Purpose. The draft Declaration also follows various Commission initiatives introduced in 2021 such as the Commission’s Communication on the Digital Compass: the European way for the Digital Decade presented last March. It sets out its ‘vision, targets and avenues for a successful digital transformation of Europe in 2030’. In addition, the Commission proposed in September 2021, the Path to the Digital Decade, a governance framework to deliver the Digital Decade’s targets.
As stated in the draft, this declaration is rooted in EU Law; the Treaties, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the case-law of the Court of Justice of the EU and secondary law. However, as the preamble recalls, it remains declaratory in nature and, even if endorsed, will not set out legal obligations. In order to strengthen its impact, the draft stresses that ‘the promotion and implementation of the digital principles is a shared political commitment of the Union and its Member States’. In that connection, to further ensure the concrete effects of the Declaration, the Commission also proposes to monitor the digital principles using the annual report on the ‘State of the Digital Decade’.
With this Declaration, the Commission’s ambition is to put people and their rights at the centre of all considerations and developments during the digital transformation. Even though the former European Parliament President, David Sassoli, who recently passed away, supported the idea of internet access as a new human right back in 2020, the present Declaration does not recognise new rights. Rather, it articulates how existing values of the EU and fundamental rights should be respected in the online world. As Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age, puts it:
‘We want safe technologies that work for people, and that respect our rights and values. Also, when we are online. And we want everyone to be empowered to take an active part in our increasingly digitised societies.’
In order to provide a reference point for all interested actors, the draft Declaration covers the fundamental rights and principles relevant to the digital transformation, across a range of topics that include the people-centred approach to the digital transformation, solidarity and inclusion, freedom of choice, participation in the digital public space, safety, security and empowerment, and sustainability. As such, the Declaration represents an auspicious advancement of European human rights values in the governance and regulation of digital rights within the EU.
In a time when rapid global digital advancement consistently outpaces regulatory frameworks and institutions of State agency in the multilateral domain, the Declaration represents a unique step towards a human rights-based approach to digital governance and inclusion. By building upon the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the Declaration also arguably entails an important step towards the building of a human rights-based ‘Geopolitical Commission’ as advocated by the strategic policy goals of the Von der Leyen Presidency of the European Commission.
Among the key points outlined within the Declaration is the avowal within ‘Chapter II: Solidarity and inclusion’ that the EU is committed to:
‘a digital transformation that leaves nobody behind. It should notably include elderly people, persons with disabilities, or marginalised, vulnerable or disenfranchised people and those who act on their behalf’.
It reflects the Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030, which addresses the potential of the digital transformation and emphasises how accessibility to virtual environments comprise ‘an enabler of rights and a prerequisite for the full participation of persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others’. As such, a human-rights based approach to the Digital Age is indispensable if the EU is to successfully establish a digital environment that can be accessible, safe, and beneficial to all persons.
Despite the great inclusive potential of digital technologies and the internet of things, the early years of the digital age have witnessed a substantial lack of technological inclusivity coupled with considerable private sector hostility towards universal design. Furthermore, poor deployment and facilitation of internet connectivity infrastructure, and a heavily discriminatory switch-over from traditional physical and analogue services to the digital domain has increased the vulnerability and exclusion of older adults and persons with disabilities from full and active participation in all areas of society. The Declaration, however, puts inclusivity and human rights at the forefront of EU social advancement into the digital future. To this end, the EU has arguably become a true leader in the human rights-based approach towards digital advancement, particularly in a world that is experiencing a resurgence of authoritarianism and long-term existential threats to a rights and rules-based international order. The distinguished soft power of the EU, having achieved appreciable international credibility in recent history through the internal institutions and international organisations that promulgate EU law and social policy on a multilateral level, bodes well for the encouragement and proliferation of an inclusive digital future in the further abroad. As the EU acclimatises to the commitments and obligations incumbent upon it as a ‘Geopolitical Commission’ subscribed to a human rights-based approach to the Digital Age, the example set by the Declaration may encourage the adoption of an inclusive digital future beyond the borders of the EU and proliferate the cause of digital rights within the wider international order.
We believe, that, once endorsed and published as an official text, this Declaration will also be a useful reference point for the ALL Institute’s research. The human-centred and inclusive approach to digital transformation is already reflected in the Institute’s activities, which promote ‘human rights-based and person-centred systems, evidence-based policies and laws, as well as the development and application of appropriate technologies that empower people and enhance social inclusion’. This Declaration may serve as further compass to enhance an inclusive approach to technologies.
Léa Urzel is being funded by the project ‘Protecting the Right to Culture of Persons with Disabilities and Enhancing Cultural Diversity through European Union Law: Exploring New Paths – DANCING’. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No 864182).
