November 2021 — Page 2 of 16 — Human Rights & Charity

Digital Child’s Play: protecting children from the impacts of AI

Children are already interacting with AI technologies in many different ways: they are embedded in toys, virtual assistants, video games, and adaptive learning software. Their impact on children’s lives is profound, yet UNICEF found that, when it comes to AI policies and practices, children’s rights are an afterthought, at best.

In response, the UN children’s agency has developed draft Policy Guidance on AI for Children to promote children’s rights, and raise awareness of how AI systems can uphold or undermine these rights.

Conor Lennon from UN News asked Jasmina Byrne, Policy Chief at the UNICEF Global Insights team, and Steven Vosloo, a UNICEF data, research and policy specialist, about the importance of putting children at the centre of AI-related policies.
AI Technology will fundamentally change society.

Steven Vosloo At UNICEF we saw that AI was a very hot topic, and something that would fundamentally change society and the economy, particularly for the coming generations. But when we looked at national AI strategies, and corporate policies and guidelines, we realized that not enough attention was being paid to children, and to how AI impacts them.

So, we began an extensive consultation process, speaking to experts around the world, and almost 250 children, in five countries. That process led to our draft guidance document and, after we released it, we invited governments, organizations and companies to pilot it. We’re developing case studies around the guidance, so that we can share the lessons learned.

Jasmina Byrne AI has been in development for many decades. It is neither harmful nor benevolent on its own. It’s the application of these technologies that makes them either beneficial or harmful.

There are many positive applications of AI that can be used in in education for personalized learning. It can be used in healthcare, language simulation and processing, and it is being used to support children with disabilities.

And we use it at UNICEF. For example, it helps us to predict the spread of disease, and improve poverty estimations. But there are also many risks that are associated with the use of AI technologies.

Children interact with digital technologies all the time, but they’re not aware, and many adults are not aware, that many of the toys or platforms they use are powered by artificial intelligence. That’s why we felt that there has to be a special consideration given to children and because of their special vulnerabilities.

Privacy and the profit motive

Steven Vosloo The AI could be using natural language processing to understand words and instructions, and so it’s collecting a lot of data from that child, including intimate conversations, and that data is being stored in the cloud, often on commercial servers. So, there are privacy concerns.

We also know of instances where these types of toys were hacked, and they were banned in Germany, because they were considered to be safe enough.

Around a third of all online users are children. We often find that younger children are using social media platforms or video sharing platforms that weren’t designed with them in mind.

They are often designed for maximum engagement, and are built on a certain level of profiling based on data sets that may not represent children.

Predictive analytics and profiling are particularly relevant when dealing with children: AI may profile children in a way that puts them in a certain bucket, and this may determine what kind of educational opportunities they have in the future, or what benefits parents can access for children. So, the AI is not just impacting them today, but it could set their whole life course on a different direction.

Jasmina Byrne Last year this was big news in the UK. The Government used an algorithm to predict the final grades of high schoolers. And because the data that was input in the algorithms was skewed towards children from private schools, their results were really appalling, and they really discriminated against a lot of children who were from minority communities. So, they had to abandon that system.

That’s just one example of how, if algorithms are based on data that is biased, it can actually have a really negative consequences for children.

‘It’s a digital life now’

Steven Vosloo We really hope that our recommendations will filter down to the people who are actually writing the code. The policy guidance has been aimed at a broad audience, from the governments and policymakers who are increasingly setting strategies and beginning to think about regulating AI, and the private sector that it often develops these AI systems.

We do see competing interests: the decisions around AI systems often have to balance a profit incentive versus an ethical one. What we advocate for is a commitment to responsible AI that comes from the top: not just at the level of the data scientist or software developer, from top management and senior government ministers.

Jasmina Byrne The data footprint that children leave by using digital technology is commercialized and used by third parties for their own profit and for their own gain. They’re often targeted by ads that are not really appropriate for them. This is something that we’ve been really closely following and monitoring.

However, I would say that there is now more political appetite to address these issues, and we are working to put get them on the agenda of policymakers.

Governments need to think and puts children at the centre of all their policy-making around frontier digital technologies. If we don’t think about them and their needs. Then we are really missing great opportunities.

Steven Vosloo The Scottish Government released their AI strategy in March and they officially adopted the UNICEF policy guidance on AI for children. And part of that was because the government as a whole has adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child into law. Children’s lives are not really online or offline anymore. And it’s a digital life now.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the interview here.

The Global Forum on AI for Children

On November 30 – December 1, UNICEF and the Government of Finland host the Global Forum on AI for Children.
This event gathers the world’s foremost children’s rights and technology experts, policymakers, practitioners and researchers, as well as children active in the AI space, to connect and share knowledge on pressing issues at the intersection of children’s rights, digital technology policies and AI systems.
The forum aims to recap project achievements and impacts, share knowledge of what has worked and what hasn’t for more child-centred AI, and enable networking on how the work can continue and inspire participants to act.

9.4 million people are ‘living their worst nightmare’ in northern Ethiopia due to ongoing conflict

“Today, 9.4 million people are living their worst nightmare,” Tomson Phiri, the agency’s spokesperson, told journalists in Geneva.

80 per cent ‘behind battle lines’

Of the people across northern Ethiopia in need of assistance, more than 80 per cent – 7.8 million – “are behind battle lines”.

The largest jump in numbers has occurred in Amhara region with 3.7 million people now in urgent need of humanitarian aid.

Screening data from all three regions in Northern Ethiopia has shown malnutrition rates of between 16 and 28 per cent for children. Even more alarming, up to 50 per cent of pregnant and breastfeeding women screened in Amhara and Tigray were also found to be malnourished.

Delivery of aid

According to the WFP spokesperson, a convoy loaded with 2,200 metric tons of life-saving food is expected to arrive in Mekele (in Tigray) in the coming days; 35 trucks have arrived so far and more vehicles loaded with food from Kombolcha are being sent into Southern Tigray today.

Corridors into Tigray had been closed due to the recent Tigrayan advances into Afar and Amhara, as well as severe disruptions linked to federal government approvals.

Mr. Phiri pointed out that this has meant that less than a third of the supplies needed have entered the region since mid-July.

He added that one million litres of fuel is also needed to be able to reach the 7.8 million people behind battle lines.

A ‘textbook’ humanitarian crisis

While WFP has reached 180,000 people in Tigray in this current round, this amounts to just seven percent of the 2.5 million WFP needs to reach, the spokesperson highlighted.

“A famine has not been declared in Ethiopia but…we are running out of words really to capture exactly the situation that is unfolding before our eyes, but… it is the textbook definition of a humanitarian crisis”, he said.

Earlier this week WFP delivered food to over 10,000 people in the Amhara towns of Dessie and Kombolcha. These were the first distributions to happen there since they were taken over by Tigray forces almost a month ago. WFP was only granted full access to its warehouses in the region last week.

To date, WFP has reached more than 3.2 million people with emergency food and nutrition assistance across northern Ethiopia, including 875,000 vulnerable mothers and children with nutritionally fortified food.

In Amhara, WFP has reached more than 220,000 people with food and nutrition assistance and is scaling up to reach 650,000 people. In Afar, WFP has distributed food to 124,000 people out of its targeted 534,000.

Urgent action needed

Mr. Phiri called for urgent action to be taken to help WFP deliver assistance over the next six months.

At least $316 million in funding is required for Northern Ethiopia, with an unprecedented $579 million to save and change the lives of 12 million people across the country over the next six months.

Risk of genocide is real

Later on Friday, the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, reiterated her grave concerns regarding the deterioration of the situation.

For Ms. Nderitu, several threats are “spiralling the country down to a path where the risk of commission of atrocity crimes, including genocide, is real and must be addressed as a matter of utmost urgency.”

She pointed to calls to arms and hate speech, militarization of society, ethnic profiling, denial of humanitarian access and blockage of food to areas under fighting inhabited by specific ethnic communities.

The Special Adviser also called on regional and international actors to intensify their engagement to “prevent falling into this abyss.”

Ms. Nderitu concluded saying that, while nothing can restore the lives of those that have been lost, it is not late to prevent more suffering and to put an end to the hostilities through dialogue.

UN Refugee Agency concerned about indigenous Venezuelans in Guyana

More humanitarian presence and support from the international community is needed, said on Friday Philippa Candler, UNHCR’s Multi-Country Office Representative in Panama, speaking to journalists in Geneva.

An estimated 24,500 refugees and migrants from Venezuela are living in Guyana, including some 2,500 indigenous Warao.

Some have settled in hard-to-reach areas near the Venezuelan border and others in or around the towns of Mabaruma and Port Kaituma.

Since early 2020, some 250 Warao also found refuge in Anabisi in northern Guyana. More than half of this group are children.

Living conditions

According to UNHCR, these communities have limited access to services and the delivery of aid is impeded by remoteness, lack of transport infrastructure and distances.

Assessments conducted in October and November show mounting needs, aggravated by the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most Warao people have only one meal a day or less. Without formal job opportunities, many are begging, working odd jobs, often in exchange for food, selling handicrafts or depending on humanitarian assistance.

Moreover, most families do not have access to drinking water, relying instead on rivers for drinking, bathing, and defecation.

Last week, UNHCR received reports that one Warao child from the Anabisi community died and several others were hospitalized, reportedly due to malnutrition and diseases related to poor sanitation conditions. Some have been discharged since.

Response

Since 2019, the agency has worked with partners to distribute material assistance, provide shelter and support access to education services to refugees, migrants and members of the host communities.

It also provides counselling, interpretation services and facilitates their access to government services including health programmes and vaccination against COVID-19.

UNHCR is currently delivering food hampers, solar lamps, mosquito nets, water purification tablets provided by the Guyanese Civil Defense Commission, and other basic relief items to some 400 indigenous Warao from Venezuela.

The agency works across 17 countries to respond to the plight of five million Venezuelan refugees and migrants hosted in Latin America and the Caribbean.

To date, the Refugee and Migrant Response Plan to meet the needs of the Venezuelan refugees and migrants and their host communities is only 43.6 per cent funded.

The appeal for next year will be launched on 9 December.

WHO labels new COVID strain Omicron, designates it a ‘variant of concern’

According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO), preliminary evidence also suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant of concern, as compared to other strains, such as Delta.

Currently the number of cases appears to be increasing in almost all provinces in South Africa. WHO explains that the variant has been detected at faster rates than in previous surges in infection, suggesting it “may have a growth advantage”.

The experts have asked countries to enhance surveillance and genome sequencing efforts to better understand the variant.

There are also a number of studies underway and the agency’s technical advisory group, known by the acronym TAG-VE, will continue to evaluate this variant. WHO will communicate new findings to Member States and to the public as needed.

Information is still limited

On Wednesday, WHO’s COVID-19 technical lead, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, said the information about the now ‘Omicron’ variant is still limited.

“There are fewer than 100 whole genome sequences that are available, we don’t know very much about this yet. What we do know is that this variant has a large number of mutations, and the concern is that when you have so many mutations it can have an impact on how the virus behaves”, she said during a Q&A on Twitter.

Dr. Van Kerkhove explained that researchers are currently trying to determine where the mutations are and what they potentially mean for diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines.

“It will take a few weeks for us to understand what impact this variant has, there’s a lot of work that is underway”, she added.

‘Do not discriminate’

Earlier today, the UN health agency urged all countries to adopt a risk-based and scientific approach to travel bans linked to the new variant identified in South Africa and Botswana.

Mr. Van Kerkhove thanked researchers from these countries for openly sharing information to the UN health agency.

“Everyone out there: do not discriminate against countries that share their findings openly”, she urged, as countries such as Britain, France and Israel have moved to cancel direct flights from South Africa and surrounding nations.

According to South African health authorities so far, fewer than 100 cases of the new variant have been confirmed, largely among young people who have the lowest vaccination rate in the country.

“Countries can do a lot already in terms of surveillance and sequencing and work together with the affected countries or globally and scientifically to fight this variant and understand more about it so that we know how to go about…so at this point implementing travel measures is being cautioned against”, WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told journalists in Geneva.

Protect yourself and others

The WHO officials reminded previous advice: people can do a lot to protect themselves from COVID, including by continuing to wear masks and avoiding crowds.

“Everybody that’s out there needs to understand that the more this virus circulates the more opportunities the virus has to change, the more mutations we will see”, said Dr. Van Kerkhove.

“Get vaccinated when you can, make sure you receive the full course of your doses and make sure you take steps to reduce your exposure and prevent yourself from passing that virus to someone else”, she added.

UN expert welcomes India plan to repeal farm laws that sparked deadly protests

In a statement released this Friday, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri, also urged the Government to ensure accountability for the casualties.

“To truly turn the page on this painful chapter, it is incumbent on the authorities to heed calls for accountability concerning the casualties reported during the protests, and guarantee measures to prevent any repetition of such events”, he argued.

Contentious laws

The three agricultural laws which had the goal of deregulating the market, were passed in 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They were widely criticised for having been rushed through Parliament without enough consultation with affected communities.

In a surprise announcement on 19 November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the laws would be repealed at the next session of the legislative body.

“What was at stake with these laws was the stability of India’s entire food system,” Mr. Fakhri said. “Let’s hope that subsequent actions on reforming Indian agriculture are informed by the country’s human rights commitments and taken through meaningful consultations with farmers, communities and unions”.

Along with other UN experts, the Special Rapporteur had spoken to the Government about the laws’ potential to impact the right to food, and the severe restrictions imposed during the demonstrations.

Mr. Fakhri acknowledged the lengthy process of passing of the laws but said that what followed “is an indication of the deep dissatisfaction felt by hundreds of thousands of people”.

For him, it also shows that freedom of expression “is a valuable tool for empowering people to influence policy change through mobilisation and peaceful protest”.

Suggestions

Looking ahead, the UN expert suggested learning important lessons for public decision-making.

“We should reflect on questions on what meaningful public consultations should ideally entail, and how a more participatory approach could lead to more popular decisions”, he said.

The Government should also consider how agricultural reforms can be implemented in full respect and fulfilment of the country’s economic, social and cultural rights.

As a final note, Mr. Fakhri highlighted the “important role” India’s Supreme Court played earlier in the year, when it ordered the Government to provide more time and space to hear farmers’ grievances.

The call was also endorsed by  Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, David Boyd, Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, and Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights

The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. They work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity. 

Violence against refugee women surged in 2020, but grassroots solutions can help tackle scourge

On the 30th anniversary of the campaign for 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, the UN agency said that there’s been a global surge in domestic violence, child marriages, trafficking, sexual exploitation and abuse since March.

“A lethal mix of confinement, deepening poverty and economic duress is unleashing a renewed wave of violence against refugee, displaced and stateless women and girls”, UNHCR said in a statement.

Grassroots solutions

To tackle the crisis, the UN agency has called for funding to be scaled up for grassroots projects that focus on prevention and helping victims of gender-based violence.

These include the Myanmar Ethnic Women(’s) Refugee Organization where refugee women have joined forces to overcome abuse, reinforcing their role as strong protectors of their families and communities.

For victim Deborah, who lives in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur, violence against women at home was considered a family problem.

“I felt ashamed to share my experience with other people,” she said. “I was afraid they would say it was my fault.”

Through her work with the community-based organization, Deborah met other women suffering in silence, and when she was invited to help devise and lead a project to support refugee women affected by gender-based violence (GBV), she accepted.

COVID-19 link

UNHCR highlighted that the need for such local, refugee-led projects has become even greater during the COVID-19 pandemic, as lockdowns have taken away refugees’ often precarious livelihoods, heightening tensions in households and making it more difficult for international agencies to deliver support services.

UNHCR issued the alert after recording increases in gender-based violence in at least 27 countries.

In the Central African Republic it warned that one gender-based violence incident is recorded every hour.

And in Colombia, similar incidents affecting Venezuelan refugees and migrants have increased by 40 per cent over the first three- quarters of the year, the agency noted.

The financial stress of COVID-19 and a lack of food in households during the pandemic has put women at greater risk from violence at the hands of their partners, UNHCR reported.

This is the case on the Thai-Myanmar border, where refugee women who were already running support services and safe houses for survivors of gender-based violence asked the UN agency for funding, to provide food to families who had lost work owing to the pandemic’s economic impact.

Reaffirming its own commitment to addressing gender-based violence across its operations, UNHCR launched an institution-wide policy on GBV prevention, risk mitigation and response, in October.

Drowning of 27 migrants in English Channel is worst disaster on record: IOM

The incident amounted to the largest single loss of life in the English Channel since the UN migration agency, IOM, started recording data in 2014. 

Another 106 migrants were rescued in French waters on Wednesday alone. 

Risking everything

Ever-increasing numbers of people are attempting the journey in small, unseaworthy boats as they flee conflict or poverty or persecution in Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq, Eritrea and elsewhere. 

According to the International Organization for Migration, since 2014, 166 migrants have been recorded dead or missing in the English Channel and 22,930 have been recorded dead or missing in the Mediterranean Sea.

European tragedy

UNHCR, says an estimated 1,600 people have died or disappeared in the Mediterranean Sea this year while trying to reach Europe from northern African States or Turkey. Hundreds more have perished in the Atlantic Ocean off West Africa on a migrant route to Spain’s Canary Islands.

Since the start of the year, well over 31,000 have attempted the dangerous crossing between France and the UK and 7,800 people have been rescued at sea, the French authorities have reportedly said.

Before Wednesday’s tragedy, 14 people drowned this year trying to reach the UK, a French maritime official said. Last year, a total of seven people died and two disappeared in the English Channel.

Search and rescue call

In July, IOM Director-General António Vitorino called for “urgent and proactive steps” to reduce the loss of life of migrants travelling by dangerous sea routes to Europe. 

His appeal followed a sharp rise in the number of deaths in the first six months of the year, after at least 1,146 people died attempting to reach Europe by boat from January to June, the UN migration agency said.

“Increasing search and rescue efforts, establishing predictable disembarkation mechanisms and ensuring access to safe and legal migration pathways,” the IOM Director-General maintained.

Canary omen

In September the IOM reported a sharp increase in the deaths and disappearances of migrants at sea heading to Spain’s Canary Islands, along the West African coast. By the end of September, 785 people, including 177 women and 50 children, had died or disappeared in 2021. 

Among the UN’s recommendations to States to prevent further tragedies, UNHCR has reiterated the importance of continuing to raise awareness of the risks posed by sea crossings and of the false information given by smugglers who exploit the distress of children, women and men who have left their home countries.

The development of legal and secure channels such as family reunification visas is crucially important to ensure the safety of migrants, the UN agency insisted.

193 countries adopt the first global agreement on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is present in everyday life, from booking flights and applying for loans to steering driverless cars. It is also used in specialized fields such as cancer screening or to help create inclusive environments for the disabled.

According to UNESCO, AI is also supporting the decision-making of governments and the private sector, as well as helping combat global problems such as climate change and world hunger.

However, the agency warns that the technology ‘is bringing unprecedented challenges’.

“We see increased gender and ethnic bias, significant threats to privacy, dignity and agency, dangers of mass surveillance, and increased use of unreliable AI technologies in law enforcement, to name a few. Until now, there were no universal standards to provide an answer to these issues”, UNESCO explained in a statement.

Considering this, the adopted text aims to guide the construction of the necessary legal infrastructure to ensure the ethical development of this technology.

“The world needs rules for artificial intelligence to benefit humanity. The Recommendation on the ethics of AI is a major answer. It sets the first global normative framework while giving States the responsibility to apply it at their level. UNESCO will support its 193 Member States in its implementation and ask them to report regularly on their progress and practices”, said Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO chief.

AI as a positive contribution to humanity

The text aims to highlight the advantages of AI, while reducing the risks it also entails. According to the agency, it provides a guide to ensure that digital transformations promote human rights and contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, addressing issues around transparency, accountability and privacy, with action-oriented policy chapters on data governance, education, culture, labour, healthcare and the economy.

One of its main calls is to protect data, going beyond what tech firms and governments are doing to guarantee individuals more protection by ensuring transparency, agency and control over their personal data. The Recommendation also explicitly bans the use of AI systems for social scoring and mass surveillance.

The text also emphasises that AI actors should favour data, energy and resource-efficient methods that will help ensure that AI becomes a more prominent tool in the fight against climate change and in tackling environmental issues.

“Decisions impacting millions of people should be fair, transparent and contestable. These new technologies must help us address the major challenges in our world today, such as increased inequalities and the environmental crisis, and not deepening them.” said Gabriela Ramos, UNESCO’s Assistant Director General for Social and Human Sciences.

You can read the full text here.

Are you sure you want to share that? Sorting online fact from fiction

It has become increasingly apparent that, for some time, some individuals and organizations are intent on spreading false information online. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, claims that certain drugs or remedies are miracle cures, or that the pandemic is a hoax, have circulated on social media platforms.

Whilst there are those who are sharing these articles, videos and images maliciously, many do so because they have not been able to distinguish between legitimate information from trusted sources and false claims, or because they have simply shared a post sent by a family member or loved one, without looking closely at the content it contains.

The consequences can be disastrous, leading people to take dangerous, inappropriate medication and refuse to take COVID-19 vaccines, and may even lead to avoidable hospitalizations and deaths as a result.

To help combat the spread of harmful disinformation, the UN’s Verified campaign has teamed up with wikiHow, an online community of experts creating trusted how-to guides, to create a free online course.

The course, which contains a series of lessons sent to email subscribers over five days, teaches vital skills and how to put them into practice, helping users identify false information and help slow the spread, and protect vulnerable people from harm.

By the end of the course, students will know when, and why, to pause before sharing, how to fact-check, and how to speak to people who have shared misinformation.

Sign up to Verified’s #pledgetopause campaign, and take a moment to pause before forwarding a message, retweeting a story or watching a video in your social media feed.

From the Field: Pioneer brings farming jobs to marginalized Bangladesh communities

Oggro Dairy is the first social enterprise dedicated to agriculture in Bangladesh. Founded in 2007 by Mr. Alam, the enterprise works with farmers across the country, producing a variety of agricultural products such as milk, potato, corn, and orchids.

The aim is to create positive social impact for farmers, especially women and youth, offer fair pricing, high quality products to customers, and to conserve the environment.

Find out more in this feature from our colleagues at UN Video:

Month: November 2021