Human Rights and Technology

1. Human Rights and Technology E-mail: rejimissac@ieee.org Presented by Reji M. Issac Senior Lecturer in Electronics, B. P. C. College, Piravom AT Academic Staff College, University of Calicut Senior Member of IEEE, USA Member IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society, USA Member IEEE Communications Society, USA

2. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. ”- Martin Luther King

3. Human Rights and Technology • Like any other topic, technology also can be used for Human Rights for • Betterment to establish HR • Worsen to violate HR

4. HR How much worsened? The introduction of body scanners at airports around the world has raised privacy concerns in USA

5. HR How much improved? Invention of the Word Symbol of Word

6. What is technology? • In a very broad sense the concept of technology may refer to those aspects of culture which relate to the manipulation of the natural environment by man or "that whole collection of ways in which the members of a society provide themselves with the material tools and goods of their society - the collection of artifacts and concepts used to create an advanced socio-politico-economic structure.

7. Interrelations of technology • Technology • Science • Society or systems of societies • Systems of rights of a universal nature • Objectives of technology • Environment

8. What is a system? • "Any portion of the material universe which we choose to separate in thought from the rest of the universe for the purpose of considering and discussing the various changes which may occur within it under various conditions is called a system." -Willard Gibbs

9. Definition of technology must enable us to distinguish between the use of technology in pre-industrial and industrial societies and between industrial societies and post-industrial ones in terms of such factors as flexibility, rigidity, or its pervasiveness in social life.

10. Technology refers 3 items • 1. Technology as sets of physical objects, designed and constructed by man or artifacts which require engineering knowledge for their design and production and perform large amounts of operations themselves.

11. Technology refers 3 items • 2. Technology as a term which refers to human activities in connection with the utilization of artifacts where technological 'things' are meaningless without the 'know-how' to use them, repair them, design them and make them.

12. Technology refers 3 items • 3. Technology may refer to a body of knowledge that is necessary to generate new rules for the design, construction, and application of technical possibilities to different types of problems (such as, for example, the control of environmental pollution). Here the term technology refers to the theory of the application (logia), not just to "artificial things," the ways in which they are used in practice and the transmission of this practical knowledge ("technics": German, die Technik; French, la technique) as is emphasized in the first and second meaning of the concept "technology."

13. Any technology involves two parts • Class – Knowledge part processed through words • Object – Material part developed from basic constituent parts

14. Bell’s definition • Bell states that technology means "scientifically rationalized control of objectified processes. It refers to the system in which research and technology are coupled with feedback from the economy and the administration.

15. Goals of technology • Minimize human interference • Bring convenience and comfort • Avoid delay • Maximum automation • Eliminate errors • Facilitate further progress • Cut redundant processes • Make economical

16. Human Rights? • All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights – [Art. 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948] • All human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated – [Para 5 of the 1993 Vienna Declaration adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights]

17. Human Rights? • Modern international law is based on universal respect for, and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all – [Art. 1 and 55 of the UN Charter]

18. HISTORY • The UN Commission on Human Rights invited the United Nations University in 1986 to study both the positive and negative impacts of scientific and technological development on human rights and fundamental freedoms.

19. Inception of Human Rights and Technology • From April 29–May 2, 2004 the first ever Human Rights andTechnology conference at MIT brought together activists andacademics to discuss the role of technology in enhancing the strugglefor human rights.

20. PHRJ • The MIT Program on Human Rights and Justice (PHRJ) is a collaborative effort between the Center for International Studies and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

21. PHRJ • PHRJ is the first human rights and justice program in a top-ranked University that is primarily oriented towards science and technology and the first in the world with a specific focus on the human rights and justice aspects of economic, scientific and technological developments.  It is also one of the first academic programs in the United States to broaden its scope from human rights to justice.

22. PHRJ • PHRJ aims to encourage the creation of a cutting-edge inter-disciplinary environment at MIT for research, teaching, curricular development and real-world application in human rights and justice. It has a broad focus that goes beyond human rights in the formal legal sense to encompass a variety of approaches to securing rights and justice in today’s world.  It contributes to the involvement of MIT students in human rights and justice work through summer internships and fellowships, courses, applied research, field work and through the organizing of special events on current human rights issues.   It provides advice to students interested in working on human rights and justice issues with organizations around the world, and organizes conferences to bring diverse human rights constituencies to study and reflect on their work. 

23. PHRJ • On April 9-10, 2010, PHRJ convened a conference titled "Group Violence, Terrorism and Impunity: Challenges to Secularism and Rule of Law India: A Workshop."

24. Important problems in technology • Law moves very slowly, while technology moves with lightning rapidity. • Awareness among public is very low • Complexities • Illiterate people • Lack of trained professionals • Burden of big budgets

25. Rules framed • In the United Nations in 1966, there was a resolution on freedom of scientific research. • Article 153 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights obliged the parties to the Covenant to respect the freedom indispensable for scientific research and creative activity. In other words, scientific research was given a very firm foundation in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

26. Rules framed • General Assembly Declaration of 10 November 1975 allowed freedom for technological developments. • By the 1970s you will note that this idea that science could become a source of danger was gaining ground and the General Assembly, by resolution 3384 of 10 November 1975, noted with concern that scientific and technological achievements can be used to intensify the arms race, suppress national liberation movements and deprive individuals and peoples of their human rights and fundamental freedoms.

27. Rules framed • They also noted with concern that scientific and technological achievements can entail dangers for the civil and political rights of the individual, the group and for human dignity. In addition, they noted the urgent need to make full use of scientific and technological developments for the welfare of man, and to neutralize the present and possible future harmful consequences of certain scientific and technological achievements. So all states were called upon to cooperate in strengthening the capacity of science and technology to further human rights. In other words, there was a realization by the United Nations in the mid-1970s that there were indeed two sides to the coin. The last resolution is the 1986 resolution of the UN Commission on Human Rights in that process.

28. Rules framed • Resolution 9 of 1986 on the use of science and technological developments for the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms is the resolution that invited the UN University in cooperation with other academic and research institutions to study both the positive and negative impacts of science and technology on human rights.

29. Technology's Impact on Human Rights • "Advances in information technology benefit human rights movements by enabling rapid transmission of information to monitor and respond to human rights violations." (Jamie F. Metzl, Human Rights Quarterly, vol 18, n4, p705)

30. Technology's Impact on Human Rights • "The fact is that popular organizations can use the [internet] and are using it as a powerful instrument for democratization of information and exchange of common plans, policies and strategies."(Barbara Belejack, NACLA Report on the Americas, vol 30, n3, p14)

31. Technology's Impact on Human Rights • "Persecuted and imprisoned scholars are being aided by human-rights groups' innovative use of the Internet. Information technologies are an excellent means of organizing people globally and distributing petitions on behalf of scientists and scholars."(Kim A. McDonald, The Chronicle of Higher Education, vol 42, n30, pA21)

32. Technology's Impact on Human Rights • "technology and planning in its knowledge that the technology will empower individuals, bring in unwanted ideas and values, and, in the eyes of government officials, thereby threaten long-term stability. " (Gerald Segal) • "as Asians catch up to the Altantic world's levels of application of new technology, they will be affected by many of the same social, economic, and political forces that have been at work in Europe and North America." (Gerald Segal)

33. Technology's Impact on Human Rights • "As technology rapidly improves, it is not likely governments will be able to maintain or acquire much control over such a powerful and far reaching source of information." (Mark Ward, New Scientist, vol 151, n2047, p12)

34. Technology Areas Major Technology areas can be generalized as follows: • Electrical • Electronics • Biology • Physics • Computer • Bio-technology • Nano technology • Cybernetics • Chemistry

35. Some areas of HR issues Here we discuss some areas related with Human Rights issue • Nuclear issues • Cyber Crimes • Chemical weapons • Biological weapons • Bio-electromagnetic weapons • Electromagnetic pollution • Electronic war • Unethical use of medicines

36. HR & NUCLEAR ENERGY • Nuclear power is produced by controlled (i.e., non-explosive) nuclear reactions. Commercial and utility plants currently use nuclear fission reactions to heat water to produce steam, which is then used to generate electricity. • In 2009, 13-14% of the world's electricity came from nuclear power

37. HR & NUCLEAR ENERGY • Here the major problem is what to do with nuclear waste. In fact, one of the biggest (and perhaps the single biggest) expenses of the nuclear power industry could eventually be the storage of nuclear waste. Currently we have no proper technology to dispose the nuclear waste.

38. HR & NUCLEAR ENERGY Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945

39. Cyber Crimes • With the growing use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in our day to day affairs, our Human Rights in Cyberspace are frequently violated by Governmental as well as Non-Governmental entities, persons and organizations. • Human Rights Protection in Cyberspaceis an extension of traditional Human Rights that are available in a real life situation.

40. Cyber Crimes • To safeguard our Human Rights in Cyberspace we need an effectiveTechno-Legal Framework.At the same time we also need “Private Defense in Cyberspace” against an over zealous and over guarded E-Police State. • The present Cyber rules are governed by Information Technology Act 2000

41. Chemical weapons • Chemical weapons are very dangerous weapons that is used to kill people using chemical reactions in the body.

42. Chemical weapons IRAQ WAR SCENES

43. Biological weapons • Biological weapons are used to spread diseases and other forms of biological threats using viruses, bacteria and other living beings to cause calamities among people and individuals in a natural way

44. UNSEEN POLLUTION IN THE MODERN WORLD • Ever since the dawn of civilization, man has wanted to change and manipulate his environment. So much so, that now, we have a new and dangerous form of environmental pollution spreading all over the world. • This modern day, modern life pollution is invisible and cannot be even felt.

45. Bio-electromagnetic Weapons • A stealth weapon system that operates at the speed of light, that can kill, torture, enslave and escape detection. • But the public are largely unaware that they exist, because these weapons operate by stealth and leave no physical evidence. Electromagnetic weapons have been tested on human beings since 1976. By widely dispersing the involuntary human test-subjects, and vehemently attacking their credibility, it has been possible for the United States to proceed with these human experiments unhindered by discussions or criticisms, let alone opposition.

46. Active Denial Technology • There is only one electromagnetic spectrum.  Nuclear weapons release a great deal of ionizing radiation in the high frequency range above visible light, where the energy of the radiation is capable of breaking chemical bonds. Ionizing radiation is generally acknowledged to cause cancer.  • The US military has weaponized the non-ionizing radiation below the visible range, the microwaves and radio waves that are used in mobile phones and telecommunications.  The US government has strenuously denied that there could be health hazards from non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation, both as a defence of the involuntary human research it has been conducting for many years but has not yet acknowledged, and to dissuade other countries from developing similar weapons.  • The only biological effect of non-ionizing radiation that the US government has acknowledged for many years is heating, and accordingly, it characterizes “active denial technology” as that which produces pain from sudden heating of the skin; but this is not how it really works.

47. Converting sound to microwaves • In 1973, Joseph C. Sharp, an experimental psychologist at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research performed an experiment that was pivotal to the development of the torture equipment shipped to Iraq.  He had James Lin set up equipment in his laboratory which converted the shape of sound waves into microwave radiation that enabled him to hear himself vocalize the names of the numbers from one to ten in his head, by-passing the mechanism of his own ears.  This particular experiment was never published but is mentioned in Lin’s book, Microwave Auditory Effects and Applications, published in 1978 [5].

48. Converting sound to microwaves • The experiment has been confirmed in US Patent 6 587 729, “Apparatus for Audibly Communicating Speech Using the Radio Frequency Hearing Effect”. This patent is for an improved version of the apparatus used in the 1973 laboratory experiment, issued on July 1, 2003 and assigned to the Secretary of the Air Force. It provides scientific evidence that it is possible to hear threatening voices in one’s head without suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

49. Active Denial Technology • It blocks the normal processes of memory and thought by remote electronic means, while at the same time supplying false, distorted and/or unpleasant memories and suggestions by means of a process called “synthetic telepathy”.  The equipment that produces synthetic telepathy is sometimes referred to as “influence technology”. 

50. Active Denial Technology • While voices and visions, daydreams and nightmares are the most astonishing manifestations of this weapon system, it is also capable of crippling the human subject by limiting his/her normal range of movement, causing acute pain the equivalent of major organ failure or even death, and interfering with normal functioning of any of the human senses.  In other words, any of the tortures with which the words Guantanamo Bay have become synonymous can be achieved by remote, electronic means.