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Advocacy

UN engagement

OISTE holds special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council. It uses that standing to carry one argument into UN processes: identity, privacy and accountable technology are conditions for human rights online.

Where we work

Four UN arenas

ECOSOC

Economic and Social Council

Special consultative status, giving the foundation the right to submit written statements and take part in UN meetings. Also associated with the UN Department of Global Communications.

Human Rights Council

Privacy as a human right

Panels after the Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy reports: 1 March 2019 at the 40th session, and a panel planned for 3 March 2020 at the 43rd session that the Council cancelled at short notice.

WSIS

World Summit on the Information Society

Geneva 2003 and Tunis 2005, where OISTE called for a neutral, interoperable root for digital identity; the WSIS Forum since, including a 2012 position paper on identity management.

UNAOC

UN Alliance of Civilizations

The AI for One Humanity series in Geneva: the second global dialogue on 20 October 2023 and the third in April 2025, where HUMAN-AI-T was presented.

Initiative

Declaration of Digital Human Rights

Building on Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the foundation proposes eight rights for the digital era. Two are central: the right to disappear, and the right to own and control one’s digital identity.

  1. Privacy in the digital age

    Extends Article 12’s protection from arbitrary interference to online interactions, data and communications.

  2. The right to disappear

    The internet must let people delete personal data they no longer wish to share, by design.

  3. Own and control your digital identity

    Consent is the basis for any use of an identity, and can be withdrawn at any time.

  4. Transparent and ethical data use

    Enforceable disclosure of how data is collected, processed and shared; no unauthorised profiling.

  5. Trust and security

    Strong cybersecurity and transparent practice as the basis of online trust and economic growth.

  6. Global standards

    Unified rules that close the gap between strict and permissive privacy regimes.

  7. Protection against exploitation

    Strict penalties for unauthorised access to, or misuse of, personal data and identities.

  8. Empowerment through technology

    Usable tools, and education, for people to manage and revoke access to their data.

Endorse the declarationIndividuals, institutions and governments can endorse it by writing to info@oiste.org.
Delegates in the Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room at the Palais des Nations, Geneva
Palais des Nations, Geneva.

Also

Positions the foundation has signed

  • International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance (2013), among the first civil society signatories.
  • Principles on Identification for Sustainable Development.
  • Universal Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence, The Public Voice (2019).
  • Support for the UN High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation report, The Age of Digital Interdependence.
  • Statement on preserving the right to privacy during the Covid-19 pandemic, with more than 300 academics and experts (2020).
  • Anti-Illicit Trade Declaration, Zermatt Summit (2019).

Read the foundation’s positions