Digital technologies influence all areas of our life and have a complex impact on the enjoyment of human rights and sustainable development. They are often being used as a means for violating human rights and deepening inequality, social exclusion, and marginalization of people. At the same time, they provide new opportunities for the implementation of human rights and promoting social, global, digital, environmental (including climate) justice, and sustainable development. The empowering potential of digital technologies has not yet been fully explored and realized. The conference is aimed at discussing how the design and use of digital technologies should be effectively regulated by international law, human rights law, environmental law, and Sustainable Development Agenda, to alleviate digital poverty, reduce the digital divide and digital illiteracy, resist digital colonialism, implement human rights, and to empower vulnerable individuals and social groups. Special attention will be paid to innovative methods and best practices of designing and applying digital technologies to advance fundamental rights and the Sustainable Development Goals.

The conference, presented by the Centre for International Law at the National University of Singapore, will bring together world-leading researchers and practitioners and combine classic academic conference panels with interactive solutions-oriented workshops. The discussions will revolve around the following major issues:

• How should international law regulate digital technologies?
• How can we ensure inclusiveness in the digitalized context?
• How can digital technologies be transformed from disabling to empowering tools?
• What are the best practices of regulating, designing, and applying digital technologies to advance social, global, digital, and environmental (including climate) justice, racial and gender justice, human rights, and sustainable development?