ongDigital Law Afro-Descendants Program

Euro-American Committee of Digital Law – CEA Digital Law ®

ongDigital Law   –   ngDigital Law

Foreword

When, in 2014, a group of intellectuals, technologists, jurists and other professionals met in London with the aim of creating a digital nonprofit that would bring together activities as seemingly diverse as Technology and Law, we were already aware that the Organization needed to address society as a whole and not only certain professionals.

It is uncontroversial to speak of the Fourth Digital Revolution since 2013, when the German government worked on a project on <<smart factories>>

However, the phrase ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ was first used in 2016, at the World Economic Forum. “Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution” was the theme of the World Economic Forum’s 2016 Annual Meeting in Davos.

Yet as early as 2014, when we sought to hold the first high-level meeting in London, we were drawing the distinction between computer law and legal informatics, concepts that were often confused in both meaning and/or use…; the 4IR was simply too big for society at large.

nomadic digital nonprofit

On these premises we laid the foundations for creating the Euro-American Committee of Digital Law – CEA Digital Law® as a nomadic digital nonprofit (with no physical offices, no assets, and working as a network from anywhere in the world). Beyond the technological frontier, this concept was unthinkable for jurists at the time, and tech-legal-digital networked knowledge management began to become a reality with CEA Digital Law®

From the outset, the cornerstone of our Organization was a solemn commitment to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,

The Charter of the United Nations is highly eloquent in upholding fundamental human rights, the dignity and worth of the human person, the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small.

The San Francisco Charter,  aimed at ending war and promoting peace, justice and a better life for all humankind, has encouraged us to keep developing new ways of living together. That said, there is a pressing need to revise it in favor of turning the General Assembly into a World Parliament with powers to legislate on global and multilateral affairs

NGDOs

Ever since the United Nations put forward, in the 1960s, the proposal to allocate 0.7% of Gross Domestic Product to the eradication of poverty, and NGOs emerged to set themselves apart from governmental institutions (looking back in history, the first solidarity cause of this kind of organization was perhaps the first human rights NGO, founded in 1787 to fight slavery, Anti-Slavery International), a wide range of major organizations have become established.

ongDigital Law  / ngDigital Law

The time has come for this nonprofit association, the Euro-American Committee of Digital Law – CEA Digital Law®,  which  also counts among its objectives the promotion of policies or actions aimed at the development of groups that are excluded or at risk of exclusion, to vigorously advance some of our long-standing demands regarding these groups and the underlying implications of digital transformation, for the benefit of those groups and others.

Afro-Descendants

The term “Afro-descendant” was adopted at the Regional Conference of the Americas, held in December 2000 in Santiago, Chile, in preparation for the Third World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, which took place in Durban, South Africa, from 31 August to 8 September 2001, in order to recognize the descendants of the African peoples brought to the American continent during the colonial era through the trade in enslaved persons, who have historically been victims of racism, racial discrimination, poverty and exclusion, with the consequent repeated denial of their human rights.

In the context of the International Decade for People of African Descent​ proclaimed by the United Nations for 2015-2025 under the theme “Recognition, Justice and Development”, the Euro-American Committee of Digital Law – CEA Digital Law® wishes to contribute to the momentum of the Program of cooperation with Afro-descendants by approving a non-final strategic document.

ongDigital Law Afro-Descendants Program  /  ngDigital Law Afro-Descendants Program

Through a set of actions aimed at fulfilling a commitment of solidarity and support for the full access of Afro-descendant populations to opportunities for development and participation in all sectors of society in their respective countries.

The aims are:

• To give continuity to and strengthen the initiatives and good practices carried out for the benefit of Afro-descendant populations.
• To engage established regional institutions, bodies and initiatives as strategic partners in the Program’s activities.
• To optimize and share the knowledge generated in developing the Program’s lines of action, in coordination with the various international cooperation actors and instruments, with the aim of achieving the greatest possible impact of interventions within the scope of the Program.
• To participate and collaborate as a network with other Afro-descendant associations and make available all the tech-legal-digital expertise at our disposal.

The Program is committed to supporting:

• Public policies for equity that enhance the visibility of the Afro-descendant population, with special emphasis on education.
• Cooperation to strengthen Afro-descendant organizations, in order to overcome the obstacles that cause their weak participation and empowerment.
• Culture and development from an ethnic perspective, contributing to knowledge of and respect for the identity and cultural diversity of Afro-descendant populations.
• Sustainable ethno-development and respect for the environment, linked to the territorial dimension of Afro-descendant organizations.
• Both education at all levels (in person and online) and training
• Achieving gender equality and respect for the rights of Afro-descendant women.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Our counterparts will be the public institutions of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean (at regional, national or local level) and civil society organizations from the countries of that Region.

European Union. The great forgotten

 The Black and Afro-descendant communities in Europe are estimated to number some 15 million people. Despite being a very large group, they are one of the least known and least recognized minorities on the continent. A minority that, as ENAR stressed in 2015, is “invisible” on European and national political agendas.

To give just one example, today the EU’s counter-terrorism measures continue to perpetuate institutional discrimination, with serious impacts on racialized groups, according to the ENAR 2021 report.

Our counterparts in Europe will be the European Institutions and Member States, as well as organizations that defend human rights and the rule of law.

Digital Space  – ongDigital Law  CEA Digital Law

The extensive tech-legal-digital background of the Euro-American Committee of Digital Law – CEA Digital Law will help ensure that, e.g. the growth of artificial intelligence and other data-driven classification systems (which are fueling an increase in human rights violations) is met with a decisive offensive through structural approaches that seek to dismantle inequalities and break down privileges  in crescendo in the field of technology and law.

It is time to address racial inequality with a tech-legal-digital approach; it is time, as Bobbio put it, for “The Age of Rights” to find new avenues of protection and guarantees in this hyper-connected, radically digitalized and e-transforming society

Euro-American Committee of Digital Law – CEA Digital Law ®

Antonio Tejeda Encinas

President