Human rights in the digital era: Technological evolution and a return to natural law

Abstract

Millions of people worldwide lack a national identity, thus making universal legal identity one of the core targets of Sustainable Development Goal 16: "Peace, justice and strong institutions". With the advancement of digital technologies, we are approaching the possibility of a framework in which each human being can be identified and recognized as a person regardless of their state of origin, and maintain some level of protection independent of any one given nation state or legal system. Technologies like decentralized solutions and new-age data governance solutions are leading to the fulfilment of Article 6 of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law". In this paper we explore the global identity challenge and emerging models for new identity and governance frameworks.