Proposal

APrIGF 2022 Session Proposal Submission Form
Part 1 - Lead Organizer
Contact Person
Ms. Gayatri Khandhadai
Email
Organization / Affiliation (Please state "Individual" if appropriate) *
Business and Human Rights Resource Centre
Designation
Head of Technology and Human Rights
Gender
Female
Economy of Residence
Mauritius
Primary Stakeholder Group
Civil Society
List Your Organizing Partners (if any)
Access Now
Part 2 - Session Proposal
Session Title
Assessing investments in surveillance and technology
Session Format
Showcase
Where do you plan to organize your session?
Onsite at the venue (with online moderator for questions and comments from remote participants)
Specific Issues for Discussion
Surveillance technologies are fundamentally reshaping our societies. Certain technologies within the surveillance sector can serve legitimate law-enforcement and national security purposes with appropriate government oversight and accountability. However, many surveillance products and services are being used to systematically violate human rights by reinforcing discrimination, promoting censorship of the media, violating individuals’ right to privacy, facilitating detention and forced labour, and enabling attacks against human rights defenders.

Companies do not function in a vacuum. Investors, both private and public, are critical to enabling the set up and continued existence of companies. Therefore, investors have a responsibility to ensure their portfolio companies are respecting human rights and are not unnecessarily exposed to legal, reputational, and financial risks. Navigating the surveillance technology ecosystem: A human rights due diligence guide for investors (https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/from-us/briefings/navigating-the-surveillance-technology-ecosystem-, a guide developed by the organisers and partners, provides shareholders with a deeper understanding of the potential human rights issues going unnoticed in their portfolio companies’ value chains and equips them with a framework to make rights-respecting decisions.

The proposed session provides for a space to hear from the developers of the guide and a representative from the investors community about the metrics in the guide and how investors view human rights compliance. The discussions will shed light on how these dual use technologies create human rights and other material risks for investors’ portfolios, often in unexpected ways. Finally, the guide’s authors will answer questions and discuss how the guide can help investors, technical community and civil society advance corporate accountability throughout the surveillance technology ecosystem, including through company engagem)
Describe the Relevance of Your Session to APrIGF
Surveillance and private sector accountability hit at the heart of trust and sustainability of the internet. Accountability is an integral part of internet governance. For credible and reliable internet governance, several stakeholders, especially those who are not as visible need to be addressed and integrated. This session brings to the platform a unique and often under represented stakeholder - investors in technology based companies. Given the desire of APrIGF to ensure that all stakeholders, especially the government and private sector become more engages, this session presents an opportunity unlike others.
By discussing human rights assessment of investments, civil society and the technical community engaged in digital rights will also be presented with an opportunity to experience a discussion and resource on an under explored avenue of advocacy. Further, the session will build the capacity of participants to adapt the assessment guide to their context, ultimately strengthening the APrIG community.

APrIGF’s theme of “People at the Centre: Envisioning a community-led Internet that is inclusive, sustainable and trusted” requires greater engagement of people in the processes and institutions that impact the internet. The session proposed addresses inclusivity, trust and sustainability of the internet. The session is built around the guide that helps participants understand effective due diligence will help shareholders with investments in the surveillance technology ecosystem identify, assess, prevent and mitigate increasing human rights and other material risks; as well as helping civil society and other stakeholders use this as leverage in advocating for more accountable technologies.
Ultimately, this contributes to inclusivity of people’s perspectives and stakeholders in the governance processes and addressing core digital rights issues such as freedom of expression and privacy. The session and the guide aim at greater understanding of human rights im
Methodology / Agenda (Please add rows by clicking "+" on the right)
Time frame (e.g. 5 minutes, 20 minutes, should add up to 60 minutes) Description
5 minutes The session is aimed at providing an overview of the guide and enabling conversations among smaller groups around how the proposed assessment can be carried out. The session would start with an introduction by the moderator which will cover the outline of the sessions and speakers as well as the objective of the session.
7 minutes delivery by Dhevy Sivaprakasam (Access Now) on contents of the guide and the process that was adopted in developing the guide.
7 minutes Lorraine Hau, an investor from Asia will speak about why the investors community looks at the human rights impact of their investments and challenges faced in the process.
11 minutes The participants will then return to the main discussion to share any reflections or feedback leading to a closing of the session.
Moderators & Speakers Info (Please complete where possible)
  • Moderator (Primary)

    • Name: Gayatri Khandhadai
    • Organization: Business and Human Rights esouce Centre
    • Designation: Head of Technology and Human RIghts
    • Gender: Female
    • Economy / Country of Residence: Mauritius
    • Stakeholder Group: Civil Society
    • Expected Presence: In-person
    • Status of Confirmation: Confirmed
  • Moderator (Facilitator)

    • Name: Danny Rayan
    • Organization: Business and Human Rights esouce Centre
    • Designation: Technology and Human Rights Researcher
    • Gender: Male
    • Economy / Country of Residence: Chile
    • Stakeholder Group: Academia
    • Expected Presence: Online
    • Status of Confirmation: Confirmed
  • Speaker 1

    • Name: Dhevy Sivaprakasam
    • Organization: Access Now
    • Designation: Asia Pacific Policy Counsel
    • Gender: Female
    • Economy / Country of Residence: Singapore
    • Stakeholder Group: Civil Society
    • Expected Presence: In-person
    • Status of Confirmation: Confirmed
  • Speaker 2

    • Name: Lorraine Hau
    • Organization: Columbia Threadneedle Investments
    • Designation: Associate
    • Gender: Female
    • Economy / Country of Residence: United Kingdom
    • Stakeholder Group: Private Sector
    • Expected Presence: Online
    • Status of Confirmation: Confirmed
  • Speaker 3

    • Stakeholder Group: Academia
    • Expected Presence: In-person
    • Status of Confirmation: Proposed
  • Speaker 4

    • Stakeholder Group: Academia
    • Expected Presence: In-person
    • Status of Confirmation: Proposed
Please explain the rationale for choosing each of the above contributors to the session.
Gayatri Khandhadai and Danny Rayan have coordinated the writing and edits of the publication Navigating the surveillance technology ecosystem: A human rights due diligence guide for investors, a guide developed by the organisers. They are best placed to moderate this discussion.

Dhevy Sivaprakasam is from Access Now which is a co-contributor to the guide and have extensive experience in advocating for human rights in digital spaced and have been engaging in investor based advocacy for rights respecting technologies. They are therefore best positioned to discuss the key issues discussed in the guide.

Loraine Hau is an Associate, ESG Analyst, Responsible Investment with Colombia Threadneedle. She is well acquainted with the guide and has already participated in discussions like the one proposed on the guide. She would therefore be able to bring a unique perspective to APrIGF.
If you need assistance to find a suitable speaker to contribute to your session, or an onsite facilitator for your online-only session, please specify your request with details of what you are looking for.
No
Please declare if you have any potential conflict of interest with the Program Committee 2022.
No
Are you or other session contributors planning to apply for the APrIGF Fellowship Program 2022?
No
Number of Attendees (Please fill in numbers)
    Gender Balance in Moderators/Speakers (Please fill in numbers)
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      I agree that my data can be submitted to forms.for.asia and processed by APrIGF organizers for the program selection of APrIGF 2022.