SEEDIG Youth School
Class of 2020
The SEEDIG Youth School is a capacity development initiative targeted at undergraduate and master students originally from, or residing in a country in South Eastern Europe and the neighbouring area (SEE+).
The purpose of the programme is to offer regional youth a space to learn, network, exchange ideas, and prepare to actively participate in SEEDIG and other Internet governance and digital policy processes. Another goal is to encourage more youth to become long-term contributing members of SEEDIG and broader Internet governance and digital policy processes.
One of the final elements of the Youth School programme was a debate on facial recognition technologies (FRT).
Students were divided into three teams – civil society, governments, and private sector – and were asked to debate on whether tech companies should be allowed to sell FRT to law enforcement agencies (LEAs).
Below is the outcome of the debate, as agreed by the three teams.
Consensus document on the application of facial recognition technology by law enforcement agencies
Memorandum of understanding between governments of SEE+ countries,
civil society organisations, and private sector representatives
Agreement: This Memorandum of understanding is an acknowledgment that FRT technologies will be implemented in SEE+ countries in line with the following principles.
- FRT will be implemented bearing in mind the need to protect public interest, public security and to prevent the violation of human rights.
- Implementation and use of FRT will be conducted in a multistakeholder manner, by involving governments, the private sector, civil society, academia, the tech community and the general public in order to reduce or prevent any type of harm, as well as to prevent human rights violations.
- The government will ensure the drafting of laws, regulations, and codes of ethics for LEAs and their public servants, in order to prevent the misuse of FRT. The government will also take into account the impact assessment of FRT on human rights.
- International standards for ensuring security and privacy of FRT (proportionality test, human rights, privacy, transparency) will be issued.
- The creation of an external, independent oversight body as a guarantee that the protection of human rights is supported.
- A moratorium phase for the use of FRTs should be instituted, until the conditions are met. In the meantime, massive awareness campaigns should be undertaken so as to inform the public and make sure that the messages are clear and drafted in a language friendly enough to be understood easily.
- Transparency standards could be reached by employing open source technologies. This would ensure the necessary and proportionate use of FRT, so as to achieve significant public safety benefits.
- Enesa Bosnjo, Izmir Katip Celebi University, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Irina Buzu, Free International University of Moldova, Moldova
- Maria Christopoulou, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
- Zülal Erdoğan, Galatasaray University, Turkey
- Mariia Manevych, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine
- Darya Markevich, Belarusian State University, Belarus
- Andreja Mihailovic, University Union, Montenegro
- Seda Mohul, Middle East Technical University, Turkey
- Neli Odishvili, University of Georgia, Georgia
- Nikita Ovod, National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute”, Ukraine
- Katsiaryna Pushkarova, European Humanities University, Belarus
- Sofia Sorokina, Saint Petersburg University, Russian Federation
- Alexandru Sotropa, Maastricht University, Romania
- Kladjola Spahiu, University of Tirana, Albania
- Anna Trushkina, National University Odessa, Ukraine
- Mariam Tsiklauri, University of Georgia, Georgia
- Klea Xhaferi, University of Tirana, Albania
Do you want to learn more about the programme?
If you have questions about the Youth School, please write to us at applications[at]seedig.net.