From data to implementation: the GHRH brought a human rights lens to the AI for Good Global Summit and WSIS 2026 where it shared how digital innovation may help the progression of human rights.
During a week in which Geneva became a global meeting point for discussions on artificial intelligence and digital cooperation, the Geneva Human Rights Hub (GHRH) added a human rights lens to the programme through activities at both the AI for Good Global Summit and the WSIS+20 High-Level Event.
From 7 to 10 July, the GHRH welcomed visitors to its exhibition booth at the AI for Good Global Summit. The booth provided an open space for human rights practitioners, technology specialists, diplomats and civil society representatives to exchange views on how digital tools and responsible AI can strengthen human rights monitoring and implementation.
A programme of guest presentations brought practical initiatives directly into these conversations. OHCHR’s Dynamic Knowledge and Library Team presented its work on digital knowledge systems, while the OHCHR Capacity Building Programme demonstrated the National Recommendations Tracking Database and its role in supporting States with the organisation and follow-up of human rights recommendations. OHCHR’s Innovations and Analytics Hub introduced HRDx, and further exchanges with the CyberLaw Lab at Adam Mickiewicz University explored academic AI pilots and emerging approaches to making human rights information more accessible and usable.
Across these discussions, participants returned to a common question: how can innovation respond to the actual information needs of those working with human rights recommendations? Existing tools already help users organise documentation, identify relevant recommendations and follow implementation. Their impact, however, depends on whether they can be discovered and used by different communities, whether systems can connect with one another and whether the underlying information remains trustworthy and traceable.
These issues were examined in greater depth on 8 July during the WSIS Policy Dialogue, “From Data to Implementation: Scaling Digital Tools for Human Rights Monitoring”, organised by the FNF Human Rights Hub, GHRH and OHCHR.
The discussion brought together Michaela Lissowsky, Director of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation; Roberto Céspedes, Chargé d’Affaires of the Mission of Costa Rica to the United Nations in Geneva; Marie-Eve Boyer of OHCHR’s Capacity Building Programme; and Łukasz Szoszkiewicz of Adam Mickiewicz University and the Neurorights Foundation. The session was moderated by Domenico Zipoli, GHRH Head of Programmes.
Drawing on the National Recommendations Tracking Database and academic projects using natural language processing and generative AI, the panel considered how digital systems can help move human rights information towards concrete implementation. Participants discussed AI-assisted functions such as tagging, semantic search, multilingual access and metadata extraction, while stressing that technology must respond to institutional realities and remain accessible to users with different levels of capacity.
The exchange also highlighted persistent fragmentation across the human rights information landscape. Databases and tracking systems are often developed separately, even when they work with related sources and serve overlapping communities. Greater interoperability could allow users to move more easily between UN findings, national coordination processes and evidence produced by civil society. This requires attention not only to technical compatibility, but also to data protection, accountability and meaningful human oversight.
The booth and policy dialogue formed part of GHRH’s ongoing project on Digital Technologies and AI for Human Rights. Through this initiative, the Hub maps the evolving ecosystem of human rights tools and convenes the organisations developing and using them. It also examines where responsible AI can offer practical value, as well as the safeguards needed to ensure that its use strengthens rather than weakens informed human judgement.
This work is becoming increasingly important as Geneva prepares to host the Geneva AI Summit on 21–22 June 2027, immediately before the next AI for Good Global Summit. Organised by the Swiss Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications in collaboration with the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, the Summit will place inclusive and multistakeholder AI governance at the centre of the global discussion.
The “Road to Geneva” offers an important opportunity to ensure that human rights institutions and practitioners are fully part of that conversation. GHRH will continue working with partners across International Geneva and beyond to connect technological innovation with the practical demands of human rights monitoring and implementation.
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