About

Version: 28 April 2022

The United Nations stated that we need to move towards a ‘People First Digital World’. In order to do so we believe that we urgently need a better foundation for digital human rights in our society. Digital Rights House has the intent to speed up all efforts realising better safeguards for our basic digital human rights in cities for citizens.

Our goals include:

-To stimulate the sharing of insights on the status of digital human rights in the context of a city

-To provide a platform for all stakeholders to share experiences and promote opportunities to join activities that raise the bar on digital human rights

-To enable citizens to be heard when it comes to digital human rights issues

Our activities include:

-State of Digital Rights (report, data set, event and platform)

-Digital Rights Day (festival and platform)

-Helpdesk for digital human rights for citizens (research project, prototypes, channels)

Periodically, our aim is to provide input for ongoing dialogue from different perspectives, including the citizen perspective. Sources for the State of Digital Rights include dialogues with city ombudsmannen, cases shared by municipalities for discussion with other cities, an international multi stakeholder survey and the outcome of the research project ‘Helpdesk for digital human rights for citizens’. All parties are invited to contribute to Digital Rights Day, which on the one hand involves a festival for citizens to experience what is going on locally and on the other hand can be seen as an online platform. The idea is that all ‘data’ is available for further use, for instance as a source for new ‘products’. In 2023 the first State of Digital Rights report, data set and collection of dialogues, will be launched. In 2022 Digital Rights Day as a festival will take place in Amsterdam. The ‘Helpdesk’ project is currently in effect and is rolling out in all neighbourhoods in Amsterdam. All activities will be developed further in the coming years. 

More on State of Digital Rights - The report including the data set is primarily focused on inspiring professionals in a city context including professionals working for the local government, professionals in the public domain and independents ambitious doing good organisations and entrepreneurs. The idea is that the outcomes of the annual State of Digital Rights can be translated for, and made actionable for all stakeholders in a city context including citizens. During Digital Rights Day, every year on 10 December, the specific aim is to put the citizen at the heart of the conversation and to stimulate the organisation of a broad range of events enabling citizens to dive into what is digital human rights, what is the status in the city and to present opportunities for playing a role in raising the bar of digital human rights in the city too. The State of Digital Rights is realised through a number of what we call product lines, including a global survey with local contributions and the ombudsmannen dialogue addressing what is needed to make citizen voices better heard.

Digital Rights House has been set up as a foundation and has a formal partnership with the municipality of Amsterdam. As of date, a core team and network of more than 35 people are organised in teams. Financing for the coming years is secured due to partnerships.