GENEVA and REDMOND, Wash., May 16,
2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Office of the UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights on Tuesday announced a landmark five-year
partnership with Microsoft Corp. As part of the agreement,
Microsoft will provide a grant of $5
million (USD) to support the work of the UN Human Rights
Office. This represents an unprecedented level of support from a
private-sector organization.
A particular area of focus for the partnership will be the
development and use of advanced technology designed to better
predict, analyze and respond to critical human rights situations,
which currently appear not only to be proliferating in many parts
of the world — including areas previously viewed as stable — but
also growing in complexity.
The new partnership builds on a longstanding relationship
between the UN Human Rights Office and Microsoft that is based on
two shared ideas. The first is a commitment to ensuring technology
plays a positive role in helping to promote and protect human
rights. The second is a recognition of the need for the private
sector to play a bigger part in helping to advance the cause of
human rights globally.
"As a global company that sees the problems of the world, we
believe that we have a responsibility to help solve them," said
Microsoft President Brad Smith. "We
have an untapped opportunity to use the power of technology to
collect data, analyze that data and equip the United Nations to
advance human rights around the world."
Technology for human rights
While in some cases technology may contribute to human rights
challenges, it also has an important role to play in tackling
abuses. The grant from Microsoft will help establish technology
that has a positive impact, for example by developing and deploying
new technology solutions specifically designed to advance the
mission of the UN Human Rights Office and protect human rights.
One example is Rights View, an information "dashboard" that will
allow UN human rights staff to aggregate large quantities of
internal and external data on specific countries and types of
rights violations in real time. It will help facilitate analysis,
ensure early warning of emerging critical issues and provide data
to guide responses. This tool, powered by cloud computing and big
data analysis, is just one example of the potential for technology
to be a force for good.
Business and human rights
Microsoft will also work with the UN Human Rights Office to
raise awareness of the role that companies can and should play in
driving respect for human rights and to promote more responsible
business conduct across the world. Microsoft will work closely with
the Office to help promote broader adoption and implementation of
the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
The UN Guiding Principles provide a global standard for preventing
and addressing the risk of adverse impacts on human rights linked
to business activity.
Microsoft will also provide support for human rights advocacy
and outreach campaigns through concrete support for the work of the
UN Human Rights Office in key areas like freedom of expression,
data protection and privacy, and inclusion. This includes direct
support for the development and promotion of corporate principles
for tackling LGBTI discrimination in the workplace in line with
international human rights standards.
"This could be a truly groundbreaking agreement," said UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al
Hussein. "We live in a rapidly evolving age, where
technology can either be used to solve human rights problems or
misused to erode human rights. Similarly, companies can infringe
people's rights, or they can be a major progressive force."
"The private sector has an essential role to play in advancing
human rights, and this partnership with Microsoft demonstrates how
we can join forces in a constructive way," Zeid said. "I hope this
is just the beginning of something much bigger: that it helps
stimulate a broad movement by the private sector to stand up for
human rights. Increased support from major companies in the
technology sector and other fields can clearly make a critical
difference."
Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) is the leading platform and
productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and
its mission is to empower every person and every organization on
the planet to achieve more.
Access our online press kit:
https://news.microsoft.com/HumanRightsUN
Read more about Microsoft's approach to human rights:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/about/corporate-responsibility/human-rights
Read more about Microsoft's Technology and Human Rights
Center:
https://www.microsoft.com/about/csr/human-rights/humanrightscenter.aspx
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SOURCE Microsoft Corp.