Introducing the Artificial Intelligence and Digital Citizenship Initiative at the John Jay College Center for International Human Rights

The Artificial Intelligence Team at the Center for International Human Rights kicked off in the 2019–2020 academic year with a series of lectures co-sponsored with the Center for Criminal Justice Ethics on artificial intelligence in the context of policing, intelligence and security globally. Although briefly delayed by the COVID19 pandemic, the CIHR sponsored two key seminars in 2020 inaugurating our research focal areas for the 2020–2021 academic year:

  • A presentation by Dr. George Andreopoulos and Dr. Michelle Strah in cooperation with the Criminal Justice Reform Project by Dr. Carsten Momsen, Dr. Kristin Drenkhahn and Lisa Washington to the Law Faculty at the Freie Universität Berlin in July 2020 on Race and Policing in the United States in the context of rising white supremacist movements
  • A webinar on AI, Policing and Human Rights in the context of predictive policing in the US and Germany by Dr. Carsten Momsen and Dr. Michelle Strah in November 2020.

We are pleased to launch this online initiative on digital citizenship in the context of human rights in an era of rising ethnonationalism, XRW extremist violence and closing of the civic space in authoritarian and democratic states alike around the world.

Our first white paper published here, Towards a Concept of Digital Citizenship: AI and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is the first in a series which will continue to look at economic, civil and political rights from the perspective of a new model of digital citizenship.

Capitalizing on the work we started in 2020, we look forward to expanding our digital footprint through 2021 to encompass the work of our visiting scholars, graduate research assistants on the AI team at the Center, and guest posts and collaboration with other Center scholars and researchers in allied fields. Additional white papers in the series on digital citizenship will be accompanied by shorter issue briefs as well as an online conversation series on the larger issues of artificial intelligence and human rights.

About the John Jay College Center for International Human Rights

The Center for International Human Rights (CIHR) was established in 2001 with a mandate to study the main challenges to the promotion and protection of internationally recognized human rights norms; analyze and assess the intersections between human rights violations and international crimes; investigate genocide historically and in the contemporary world; and devise educational programs aimed at increasing public awareness of these norms.

The Center at John Jay College focuses on a critical examination of long-standing and emerging issues on the human rights agenda, as well as on equipping our students with the necessary background and experience to pursue their interests in human rights scholarship and advocacy. CIHR regularly conducts research workshops, seminars (including panel discussions and lectures) and develops outreach programs. The workshops focus on cutting-edge issues and bring together experts in the field to present and discuss their work and usually result in publications like books, or special issues in scholarly journals. In addition, the Center is consistently looking for innovative outreach/awareness activities to actively involve the college community, as well as the broader public, on important human rights issues.

For more information on the Center for International Human Rights at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, please visit us the official website and join the mailing list. You can also connect with CIHR on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

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Center for International Human Rights

A research center at John Jay College focused on a critical examination of long-standing and emerging issues on the human rights agenda.