ICT4Peace at the ICRC Symposium on Digital Risks in Situations of Armed Conflict in London

Activities, AI, disinformation, misinformation and hate speech, Policy Research ICT, Capacity Building ICT, Policy Research CS, Capacity Building CS, UN Crisis Information Management Strategy (CIMS), Strategic Input into UN peacekeeping, peacebuilding and humanitarian operations, Responding to/preventing Violent Extremism using ICTs and the Internet, ICTs and Human Rights Protection, New media for crisis management and peacebuilding, Norms of Responsible Behaviour and Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) for the Cyberspace

19. December 2018

Dr. Serge Droz and Daniel Stauffacher participated in the ICRC Symposium on Digital Risks in Situations of Armed Conflict on 11 & 12 December. The program, “Digital Risks in Situations of Armed Conflict,” aimed to bring together UN agencies, humanitarian and human rights NGOs, the private sector, governments, civil society, and academia to develop a deeper understanding about the relationship between digital risk and the protection of conflict-affected populations, and to identify areas for cooperative action for responding more effectively and appropriately to protection needs.

The description of the Symposium can be found here.

The ICT4Peace Foundation has for many years worked with the UN and ICRC to strengthen the awareness and understanding of, need for as well as the meaningful implementation of standards, frameworks and technologies to protect the information of vulnerable communities in violent contexts, as well as refugees and internally displaced persons.

From country specific Policy Briefs to research & output on misinformation, disinformation, socia lmedia weaponisation & impact, from Global South perspectives, see work stream led by Special Advisor.

The work by ICT4Peace has also embraced the multi-faceted nature of Artificial Intelligence, posing significant, new, fluid opportunities & challenges to human security, peace & democracy. A capture of some of this work here.

ICT4Peace, in concert UNHCR and ICRC as key stakeholder, helped with building the Protection Information Management (PIM) and the development and hosting of http://pim.guide curated by UNHRC.

As far back as 2010, ICT4Peace’s Sanjana held strategic workshops with ICRC staff in Geneva around newmedia, socialmedia, OS_INT, digi-sec and the possible implications for the ICRC mission and mandate. We also supported ICRC’s Global Partnerships for Humanitarian Impact and Innovation in 2014, prefacing many #ICRCSymposium themes.

Many topic, themes, challenges and opportunities discussed at the ICRC Symposium, are those ICT4Peace has flagged, framed & focussed on for years. E.g. at Swissnex in San Francisco.