Digital technologies for birth registration must factor in data, gender considerations: APC | Biometric Update

Digital technologies for birth registration must factor in data, gender considerations: APC  Biometric Update

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Aug 21, 2024 - 12:00
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Digital technologies for birth registration must factor in data, gender considerations: APC | Biometric Update

Digital technologies for birth registration must factor in data, gender considerations: APC | Biometric Update

The Association for Progressive Communications Calls for Data Safety and Privacy in Universal Birth Registration

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC), a network of organizations working for the positive use of the internet and digital technologies, has warned that the deployment of technologies such as biometrics to push the universal birth registration agenda must be done in ways that prioritize data safety, privacy, and pluralistic gender perspectives.

Briefing Note Highlights the Importance of Data Safety and Privacy

This call headlines the content of a briefing note published recently by the APC, which is made up of 70 organizational members and associates present in 74 countries.

APC submitted the briefing note in response to a call for suggestions from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights made early this month as part of a study on the use of digital technologies to meet the goal of universal birth registration by 2030.

Challenges and Concerns Surrounding Digital Technologies for Birth Registration

The briefing paper acknowledges that while digital technologies can significantly enhance birth registration efforts, the increased use of these tools “may lead to ‘an erosion of our parenthood’, amplifying some of the challenges which have historically been fought including multiple intersecting forms of discrimination, harassment, and inequality.”

Apart from insinuating that birth registration using digital technologies “forms part of a global wider trend towards mass surveillance,” the APC says that it also somehow puts personal data and free gender expression in harm’s way if concrete measures are not taken from the very onset.

The Need for Data Collection, Protection, and Governance Mechanisms

“Before talking about universal birth registration, it is imperative to define mechanisms of data collection, protection, and governance,” the APC writes, before asking: “How is this data collected? Who decides the parameters and characteristics of the data? Who has control of this data? How is it secured? How is it used?”

As part of the right to data privacy and protection which everyone is supposed to enjoy, the APC argues that data subjects also have the right to understand “in very simple terms” how their data is collected, stored, and processed.

“If we seek universal birth registration, governments must ensure the right to data privacy and give everyone, including marginalized groups, full control over their personal data and information online at all levels. Having that in mind, a lack of data is detrimental in many ways. Economic, social, and public policy require data that is representative of the lived realities of each context,” the group mentions.

An Intersectional Feminist Perspective for a Gender-Just World

Further defending the APC’s argument about the gender factor, the briefing paper posits: “Future versions of Resolution 52/25 must be founded on an intersectional feminist perspective to ensure that the ongoing digital transformation can promote a gender-just world that is affirming to all individuals and their path to self-actualization.

“All individuals must be able to take part in the global digital ecosystem, no matter who they are or where they are based, and must have agency over their complex selves, to enjoy equal rights to safety, freedom, and dignity,” which means “equal respect for privacy, identity, self-expression, and self-determination as well as equal protection from persecution, discrimination, abuse, and surveillance, and equal access to information, opportunity, and community.”

Recommendations for Governments

Among the other recommendations, the APC urges governments to:

  1. Develop and implement appropriate legal frameworks
  2. Promote access by marginalized and vulnerable groups to digital ID systems
  3. Ensure proper engagement with these digital tools
  4. Have a robust human rights impact assessment program
  5. Promote transparency and checks for all digital tools deployed
  6. Establish oversight mechanisms

APC’s Recent Reports on Data Protection and Digital Rights

Conversations about digitizing civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems and linking them with legal identity systems have been common lately, with the UNDP and UNICEF paying frontline roles.

The APC, meanwhile, has published similar reports recently examining data protection lapses and digital rights in Africa.

Article Topics

  • Biometrics
  • Birth registration
  • Data privacy
  • Data protection
  • Digital identity
  • Gender inclusivity
  • Legal identity
  • SDG 16.9
  • United Nations

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SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

  1. SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

    • Target 16.9: By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration
    • Indicator: Universal birth registration

  2. SDG 5: Gender Equality

    • Target 5.1: End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere
    • Target 5.2: Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres
    • Target 5.3: Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early, and forced marriage and female genital mutilation
    • Target 5.4: Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure, and social protection policies
    • Target 5.5: Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic, and public life
    • Target 5.6: Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences
    • Target 5.a: Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance, and natural resources, in accordance with national laws
    • Target 5.b: Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women
    • Target 5.c: Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels
    • Indicators: Gender inclusivity in birth registration and digital transformation

Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

SDGs Targets Indicators
SDG 16 Target 16.9: By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration Universal birth registration
SDG 5
  • Target 5.1: End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere
  • Target 5.2: Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres
  • Target 5.3: Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early, and forced marriage and female genital mutilation
  • Target 5.4: Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure, and social protection policies
  • Target 5.5: Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic, and public life
  • Target 5.6: Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences
  • Target 5.a: Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance, and natural resources, in accordance with national laws
  • Target 5.b: Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women
  • Target 5.c: Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels
 Gender inclusivity in birth registration and digital transformation

Analysis

The article addresses the issues related to the deployment of technologies, such as biometrics, for universal birth registration. It highlights the importance of prioritizing data safety, privacy, and pluralistic gender perspectives in the use of these technologies. Based on the content of the article, the following analysis can be made:

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

The issues highlighted in the article are connected to SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions and SDG 5: Gender Equality.

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

Based on the article’s content, the specific targets identified are:

  • Target 16.9: By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration
  • Target 5.1: End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere
  • Target 5.2: Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres
  • Target 5.3: Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early, and forced marriage and female genital mutilation
  • Target 5.4: Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure, and social protection policies
  • Target 5.5: Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic, and public life
  • Target 5.6: Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences
  • Target 5.a: Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance, and natural resources, in accordance with national laws
  • Target 5.b: Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women
  • Target 5.c: Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

The article mentions the following indicators that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets:

  • Universal birth registration
  • Gender inclusivity in birth registration and digital transformation

These indicators reflect the need to ensure that birth registration using digital technologies is inclusive and respects individuals’ privacy and gender rights.

Source: biometricupdate.com