As noted on Twitter, the ICT4Peace Foundation welcomes the release of the report on new technologies by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The report outlines a bold new vision for the UN system to embrace the potential of ICTs – emergent & established – to strengthen its mandate. ICT4Peace has worked closely with the UN system since 2008 to study, promote, adopt & adapt new technologies in peacekeeping & humanitarian aid, as part of the crisis information management strategy (CiMS).
Recommendations by ICT4Peace from as far back as 2009, after consultations with leading agencies, department’s & arms of the UN on crisis information management using new technologies are echoed in the new report. ICT4Peace was also one the first from outside the UN to recommend, help establish & subsequently strengthen interactions with what is now known as the crisis-mapping community & their adoption of new technology around disaster relief ops.
From peacekeeping operations by DPKO to UN General Assembly reports (A/C.5/69/L.26*), ICT4Peace has for years supported the UN to critically embrace new technologies across the full spectrum of its mandate. The most recent meeting with UN steering group in February 2018 prefaced many of the recommendations in the report by the UN Secretary-General, and outlined options for moving forward, custodianship, risks & opportunities.
ICT4Peace also wishes to align itself with the progressive critique of the new report by IPI Global Observatory. In addition, we also seek to stress the importance of ethics, (human) rights & gender in the UN’s future path(s) around new technology. We also seek to stress the work by the UN itself on AI & Lethal Autonomous Weapons & cybersecurity as integral to what’s flagged in the new report, even though not explicitly flagged.
ICT4Peace remains deeply committed to the UN Secretary-General’s vision, recalling the Foundation’s own mandate arising from the WSIS process, to champion, critique, capture & contextualise the potential of new tech, media & ideas to strengthen the UN’s role, relevance & reach.
