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This week, expect no more than talks on environment, agriculture and fisheries, including discussions between the Polish and Ukrainian governments over angry protests by Polish farmers objecting to cheap grain imports from Ukraine.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (PSOE/S&D) is “mistaken” if he thinks he can govern alone in defiance of the political line of the progressive Sumar platform led by Díaz, the junior member of the governing coalition, Sumar leader, Labour Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz warned on Saturday.

Madrid will continue to “firmly support” Ukraine, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (PSOE/S&D) reiterated in a telephone conversation with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday.

Le plus grand parti bulgare, GERB, a annoncé qu'il se retirait des négociations pour l'élection d'un nouveau gouvernement, malgré l'accord conclu plus tôt avec le PP-DB pour nommer l'ancienne commissaire européenne Maria Gabriel au poste de Premier ministre.

Lega leader, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, and French far-right leader Marine Le Pen have confirmed at an event in Rome that they will not support European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for a second term.

Belgian opinion polls show vast differences in voting behaviour between the country’s regions, with Wallonians being the least likely to go to the polls while the far right is gaining ground in Flanders.

The Ukrainian military said it hit two large Russian landing ships in attacks on the annexed Crimean peninsula early on Sunday (24 March), as well as a communications centre and other infrastructure used by the Russian navy in the Black Sea.

Malika Sorel-Sutter, known for her strong anti-immigration stance, will be the second candidate on the French far-right Rassemblement National party’s list for the European elections in June, making her the second candidate on the list formerly associated with the currently struggling right-wing Les Républicains party.

France’s right-wing Les Républicains (EPP) party took aim at President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance (Renew) and Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (ID) at the launch of the party’s EU election campaign in Aubervilliers Saturday.

The introduction of an EU-wide carbon price on heating and road fuels in 2027 should be reconsidered, Yasmin Fahimi, president of the German trade union confederation (DGB), said in Berlin on Saturday (23 March).

La Banque européenne d’investissement (BEI), appelée à soutenir le financement de projets nucléaires, semble ne pas vouloir changer de stratégie d’investissement avant 2030. Une mauvaise nouvelle pour les acteurs du nucléaire, qui temporisent toutefois lors du Sommet international sur l’énergie nucléaire à Bruxelles.

Le Rassemblement national (RN) a annoncé dimanche (24 mars) le ralliement de celle qui sera 2e sur sa liste pour les élections européennes : Malika Sorel-Sutter. Avec cette nouvelle pioche, le parti à la flamme confirme le virage résolument anti-immigration de sa campagne et sa capacité d'attraction d'anciens soutiens à Les républicains.

Simon Harris, who is set to become Ireland's youngest ever prime minister after being appointed party leader on Sunday (24 March), will be hoping his social media skills and fresh face can save his party's flagging fortunes as elections loom.

Desmond D’Sa (center) has been fighting the environmental and human rights abuses of South Africa’s oil and gas industries for more than 20 years. “They’ve tried to kill us, petrol-bomb us, but they will not win, because we are standing firm.” Credit: Andrew Bogrand/Oxfam

By Andrew Bogrand and Sarah Gardiner
WASHINGTON DC, Mar 25 2024 (IPS)

Human rights defenders are under fire. At a time when the climate crisis is deepening and threats to democracy are on the rise, activists working to protect people and the environment are facing deadly threats. Front Line Defenders documented more than 400 murders of defenders in 2022—the highest number ever recorded.

New legislation introduced by U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, might help reverse this alarming trend.

The Human Rights Defenders Protection Act of 2024 would strengthen the U.S. government’s ability to protect individuals abroad who are attacked for peacefully defending human rights.

“At a time when human rights defenders are under attack all over the world, it is encouraging to see such a strong bill being introduced to the floor of the Senate,” said Mary Lawlor, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders.

Last year marked 25 years since passage of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders (HRDs), but activists continue to experience violence, torture, arbitrary detention, surveillance, harassment, and threats to their families and friends—and assassinations. Communities and defenders in the path of mining, oil, and other extractive companies face the biggest threats.

“They are scaring me 24/7. I can’t sleep,” said South African human rights defender Nonhle Mbuthuma in a new film from Oxfam—Hold the Line—that documents the struggles and successes of activists around the world. Many of her colleagues have met untimely deaths.

“They died in different ways. Some have been poisoned, some have been assassinated.” For women, there’s also the risk of sexual violence as explained by Magaly Belalcazár Ortega, an environmental defender from Colombia also featured in the film.

Attacks on defenders reflect broader threats to fundamental freedoms and are emblematic of shrinking civic space everywhere. Authoritarians who intentionally cultivate closed systems of governance to hide acts of corruption, stifle dissenting voices, and cover up human rights abuses view a strong and vibrant civil society as a threat—and often see defenders as embodiments of that threat.

Repressive governments and their enablers have grown bolder in recent years. In January 2023, South African human rights advocate and lawyer Thulani Maseko was murdered in his home in front of his family.

And despite international attention and outcry, high-profile activists like Noé Gómez Barrera, pro-democracy leader of the Indigenous Xinka Parliament of Guatemala, have become targets for assassination.

Oxfam network of partners around the world report that typical diplomatic responses are not having the desired impact. Strongly worded statements, calls for independent investigations, and one-off visa bans and targeted financial sanctions are critical first steps toward accountability for rights abuses. However, ad hoc approaches do not result in sufficient justice, nor do they deter future attacks.

The Human Rights Defenders Protection Act would address these shortcomings by requiring the U.S. government to adopt a strategic approach to supporting human rights defenders—one where the defense and protection of defenders is recognized as a core national security interest and fundamental moral obligation of the United States.

Specifically, the bill requires creation of a new visa category for at-risk defenders; increases protections for defenders testifying at multilateral forums; and expands the resources available to U.S. diplomatic missions to support defenders and strengthen their work.

Protecting and resourcing the work of defenders is critical to achieving a just energy transition, safeguarding the environment, upholding the rights of minority communities, countering democratic backsliding, and creating accountable and transparent systems of government.

The international community must move beyond reacting to attacks and toward forward-looking strategies. President Biden has called on the U.S. government to put human rights at the center of America’s foreign policy. It’s not possible to do that without protecting the rights defenders themselves.

“We need to be supported by our own governments,” said Mbuthuma, “but also by the international community.” And, while governments, UN agencies, and multilaterals have the primary responsibility to protect human rights, companies have substantial obligations, too.

A common thread in all the stories featured in Hold the Line are communities and activists pushing back on multinational extractive companies backed by local governments; the transition to a clean energy future requires a human rights agenda with serious protections for defenders and civic space. When it comes to human rights defenders, businesses can – and must – do better.

This starts with shoring up lagging public policies. Oxfam recently analyzed the policies of the largest transition-mineral mining companies on several intersecting issues related to community consent, human rights due diligence, and the protection of human rights defenders. Only eight of the 43 surveyed companies publicly recognized the legitimacy of human rights defenders and had zero tolerance for any form of retaliation against them.

Stronger corporate policies coupled with more ambitious government action will strengthen our shared civic space and support defenders at risk everywhere.

Andrew Bogrand is a senior policy advisor for extractive industries at Oxfam, where he focuses on civic space, inequality, and corruption.

Sarah Gardiner is policy lead for governance at Oxfam America.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe
 
On March 21, the 193-member UN General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution—the first ever -- on the promotion of “safe, secure and trustworthy” artificial intelligence (AI) systems that will also benefit “sustainable development for all”. Adopting a United States-led draft resolution, without a vote, the Assembly also highlighted the respect, protection and promotion of human rights in the design, development, deployment and the use of AI. The text was “co-sponsored” or backed by more than 120 other Member States

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 25 2024 (IPS)

Speaking at the third Summit for Democracy in South Korea last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that a malicious “flood” of disinformation is threatening the world’s democracies—triggered in part by the rise of artificial intelligence (AI).

But AI is also a critical arena in which democracy is being challenged. “So, while we seek to harness the power of AI and other digital technologies for good, some governments are abusing those same technologies to do just the opposite,” he said.

They’re using AI tools, like facial recognition and bots, to surveil their own citizens, harass journalists, human rights defenders, and political dissidents. They are also spreading mis- and disinformation that undermines free and fair elections, or sets one segment of our societies against another, Blinken said.

A Washington Post article in January titled ‘AI is destabilizing ‘the concept of truth itself’ focuses on the upcoming US Congressional and presidential elections while pointing out that experts in artificial intelligence have long warned that AI-generated content could muddy the waters of perceived reality.

“Weeks into a pivotal election year, AI confusion is on the rise.”

“Politicians around the globe have been swatting away potentially damning pieces of evidence — grainy video footage of hotel trysts, voice recordings criticizing political opponents — by dismissing them as AI-generated fakes. At the same time, AI deepfakes are being used to spread misinformation.”

In the US last month, the New Hampshire Justice Department said it was investigating robocalls featuring what appeared to be an AI-generated voice that sounded like President Biden telling voters to skip the Tuesday primary — the first notable use of AI for voter suppression this campaign cycle.

Mark Coeckelbergh, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Vienna and author of ‘Why AI Undermines Democracy And What To Do About It’ (Polity Press, 2024), told IPS: “As we will see in the many elections that will be held this year all over the world, AI in combination with social media plays an increasing role in manipulation of elections and spreading misinformation”.

“This is an imminent issue that needs to be addressed by policy makers. But as I show in my new book Why AI undermines democracy and what to do about it https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=why-ai-undermines-democracy-and-what-to-do-about-it–9781509560929 democracy is not only about elections.”

Democracy, he argued, is also undermined in its foundational principles due to, for example, bias and surveillance, which threatens basic democratic principles of justice and freedom.

In addition, he said, a knowledge basis is needed for democracy, but AI can lead to polarization and epistemic bubbles, in other words to a climate in which people are not interested in different opinions and where others are seen as enemies.

In such a climate, he pointed out, deliberative and communicative ideals of democracy cannot flourish, but are on the contrary undermined.

“We urgently need more binding agreements at national and global level to deal with these issues in order to safeguard and develop democracy. Democracy is very vulnerable, it can easily erode. If we leave things as they are, the desert of totalitarianism is waiting to emerge.”

Nipuna Kumbalathara, Communications Lead at CIVICUS, a global alliance of civil society organizations, told IPS: “Indeed, a serious threat to democratic rights and values is emanating from right wing media channels and online portals who are adept at spreading disinformation and reinforcing prejudice against minorities and excluded people”.

Politicians too, he said, are contributing to the growing epidemic of deliberate spread of half-truths and misleading information. Such trends were accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic when authoritarians and populists attempted to suppress the truth about the impact of the disease on affected people and sought to play up the effectiveness of their responses.

This promoted UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to call for a code of conduct on the integrity of public information in his Our Common Agenda report. It is unclear how much progress has been made on the code of conduct.

Moreover, in times when civic space conditions are at a historic low around the world, he argued, “technology is being weaponised by repressive state apparatuses to illicitly surveil, malign and persecute civil society activists and journalists engaged in exposing lies and uncovering the truth.”

Asked for a response, AI-Generated Microsoft Copilot said:

1. Disinformation and Manipulation: A malicious “flood” of disinformation threatens democracies globally. A.I., with its ability to generate and disseminate content rapidly, contributes to this threat. It sows suspicion, cynicism, and instability by exploiting fissures within democratic societies1.
2. Election Interference: Countries representing nearly half of the world’s population, including India, will hold elections this year. Manipulated information campaigns fueled by A.I. can influence electoral outcomes. The 2016 U.S. presidential election serves as a cautionary example1.
3. Challenges in Detecting A.I.-Generated Content: Powerful generative A.I. programs can deceive even sophisticated news consumers. Detecting A.I.-generated content is challenging, and adversaries cleverly launder their propaganda and disinformation1.
4. Catastrophic Risks: A recent report commissioned by the State Department warns that A.I. presents “catastrophic risks.” An A.I. system capable of superhuman persuasion could undermine democratic processes1.

Efforts to address this threat include promoting digital and media literacy, urging social media platforms to label A.I.-generated content, and raising awareness about the risks1. Vigilance and collaboration are essential to safeguarding democratic institutions from A.I.-driven disinformation.

Elaborating further, Blinken told the Seoul summit: “Our democracies are hardly immune to the harms from AI misuse and failure, including impacts from the choices that tech companies make in deploying their innovations – from our citizens being able to access fewer and less diverse media sources because of the failures of AI-enabled search engines, to discrimination and bias that disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minorities.

“The United States is determined to shape the terms of our technological future in a way that’s inclusive, rights-respecting, that sustains democratic values and democratic institutions. We’ve made historic investments in our technological capabilities and those of our democratic partners,” he declared.

“We can see, we can feel the tremendous excitement about AI around the world, and in fact, nowhere more so than in the vast global majority countries. There’s a sense that this is a tool, a means by which to genuinely accelerate progress. And we’re already seeing some of that”.

Kenya, for example, has deployed a new AI-enabled bot that enables women and girls to access comprehensive and accurate reproductive health information.

Chile developed “Creamos,” an AI-supported tool that encourages young people to contribute their ideas to foster social change and to advance sustainable development.

In Ukraine, an anti-corruption organization and tech companies came together on an AI-enabled system to accurately document attacks on cultural heritage and civilian infrastructure, which is strengthening Ukraine’s prosecution of war crimes.

“We also know that AI has tremendous power to drive development that directly improves people’s lives – and in doing so, earn the confidence of our people, people around the world, in our democratic model,” Blinken said.

“But here’s the reality. Right now, the world is on track to achieve just 12 percent – just 12 percent – of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. So, we are way behind.”

But AI could accelerate progress on 80 percent of the goals – from improving agricultural productivity to combatting hunger, to detecting and preventing outbreaks of disease, to accelerating our clean energy transition that creates jobs and protects our planet at the same time.

Meanwhile, on March 21, the 193-member UN General Assembly adopted by consensus a U.S.-led resolution on “Seizing the opportunities of safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems for sustainable development”— the first-ever stand-alone resolution negotiated at the UN General Assembly to establish a global consensus approach to AI governance.

The resolution encourages Member States to promote safe, secure, and trustworthy AI systems by:

• Cooperating with and providing capacity building and technical and financial assistance to developing countries;
• Closing the AI divides and other digital divides that exist between and within countries;
• Promoting equitable access to the benefits of AI systems;
• Respecting, protecting, and promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout the life cycle of AI systems;
• Protecting individuals from all forms of discrimination, bias, misuse, or other harm from AI systems;
• Developing regulatory and governance approaches and frameworks related to AI systems;
• Testing AI systems prior to deployment and use;
• Raising public awareness of the appropriate civil use of AI systems;
• Encouraging the development of tools that identify AI-generated digital content and their origin;
• Safeguarding privacy and the protection of personal data;
• Respecting intellectual property rights;
• Mitigating the potential negative consequences for workforces; and
• Encouraging the private sector to adhere to applicable international and domestic laws.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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