Call for Papers: The Promise and Perils of Human Rights for Governing Digital Platforms

*Hybrid Workshop (online and in-person)

This two-day workshop will examine the evolving relationship between human rights and digital platforms.

Themes:
Centred on exploring the promise and perils of human rights for addressing the challenges posed by the governance of digital platforms, this workshop invites papers that engage with any of the following themes and questions:
• What kind of human rights issues do digital platforms raise?
• How does the emergence of artificial intelligence challenge and reframe the application and
utility of human rights in the context of digital platforms?
• How are human rights currently being applied and (re-)conceptualised – by academics, civil
society and other actors around the world – in the context of digital platforms?
• How might human rights frameworks be further reconceptualised in order to better address
the harms and inequalities posed by digital platforms? Do these newly emerging harms and
inequalities give rise to new types of moral claims not recognized within the existing legal
frameworks?
• What constraints might human rights frameworks face, for example in terms of their
application to different types of actors, in addressing new harms and inequalities related to
digital platforms?
• What can digital platform governance learn from existing critical approaches to human rights
– including, for example, critical approaches rooted in theoretical traditions such as feminist,
queer, postcolonial, decolonial, and Marxist theory?
• What alternative ways of thinking, beyond human rights frameworks, could advance social
justice in relation to digital platforms?

Financial Support:
The workshop is funded by the Global Transformations and Governance Challenges Initiative at
Leiden University. A limited amount of financial support for travel and accommodation is, therefore,
available to speakers who have exhausted other potential sources of funding. A hybrid option will
also be offered to enhance participation within the workshop.