UN: "World stumbling zombie-like into a digital welfare dystopia, warns UN human rights expert"

This is what I have been warning about. Its a trick, the way international law has been set up, because people will lose their current eans of support and will not have any alternatives. The intent is a totalitarian total control in a world of corporate ownership of everything, all common goods and rights are being stolen in a systematic manner, by stealth. The US is leading this huge theft from the human race, by means of permanent trade instruments, that nullify the world's democracies.

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New York:OHCHR-

World stumbling zombie-like into a digital welfare dystopia, warns UN human rights expert

NEW YORK (17 October 2019) – A UN human rights expert has expressed concerns about the emergence of the "digital welfare state", saying that all too often the real motives behind such programs are to slash welfare spending, set up intrusive government surveillance systems and generate profits for private corporate interests.

"As humankind moves, perhaps inexorably, towards the digital welfare future it needs to alter course significantly and rapidly to avoid stumbling zombie-like into a digital welfare dystopia," the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, says in a report to be presented to the General Assembly on Friday.

The digital welfare state is commonly presented as an altruistic and noble enterprise designed to ensure that citizens benefit from new technologies, experience more efficient government, and enjoy higher levels of well-being. But, Alston said, the digitization of welfare systems has very often been used to promote deep reductions in the overall welfare budget, a narrowing of the beneficiary pool, the elimination of some services, the introduction of demanding and intrusive forms of conditionality, the pursuit of behavioural modification goals, the imposition of stronger sanctions regimes, and a complete reversal of the traditional notion that the state should be accountable to the individual.

"Digital welfare states thereby risk becoming Trojan Horses for neoliberal hostility towards social protection and regulation," said the UN Special Rapporteur. (see example below of how involuntary one way privatization is being embedded by stealth into the UN's own "human rights instruments" !!!)

"Moreover, empowering governments in countries with significant rule of law deficits by endowing them with the level of control and the potential for abuse provided by these biometric ID systems should send shudders down the spine of anyone even vaguely concerned to ensure that the digital age will be a human rights friendly one".

Alston said governments justified the introduction of expensive and complex biometric digital identity card systems on the grounds that they would improve welfare services and reduce fraud.

"The process is commonly referred to as 'digital transformation' by governments and the tech consultancies that advise them, but this somewhat neutral term should not be permitted to conceal the revolutionary, politically-driven, character of many such innovations," Alston said. "Systems of social protection and assistance are increasingly driven by digital data and technologies that are used for diverse purposes, including to automate, predict, identify, surveil, detect, target and punish."

The dominant role of the private sector in designing, constructing and even operating significant parts of the digital welfare state is a major reason for concern, according to Alston. "Most Governments have stopped short of requiring Big Tech companies to abide by human rights standards, and because the companies themselves have steadfastly resisted any such efforts, the companies often operate in a virtually human rights free-zone," said Alston.

The human rights community has thus far done a very poor job of persuading industry, government, or seemingly society at large, of the fact that a technologically-driven future will be disastrous if it is not guided by respect for human rights and grounded in hard law. There is no shortage of analyses warning of the dangers for human rights of various manifestations of digital technology and especially artificial intelligence. "But none has adequately captured the full array of threats represented by the emergence of the digital welfare state," the UN expert said.

The report is based on several country visits as well as a global consultation that drew submissions from more than 30 countries around the world. There is remarkable consistency in the empirical evidence from countries in the high income countries in the north as well as from the Global South.

Alston's presentation of the report at the General Assembly will be broadcast live on UN Web TV on Friday 18 October, during the Third Committee session in the morning from 10 am (GMT-4).

ENDS

Mr. Philip Alston (Australia) took up his functions as the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights in June 2014. As a Special Rapporteur, he is part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council's independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures' experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

-------If you value democracy or privacy--Don't use Facebook or Twitter!------
Follow the Special Rapporteur on Twitter @Alston_UNSR and Facebook at www.facebook.com/AlstonUNSR

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Where is the stealth trick in this UN document? If you pay attention to my posts, you should see the text which is taken verbatim from the GATS agreement and represents a trap Exactly like the Trojan Horse described enough, the Trojan Horse is embedded within A/RES/29/3281 - Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States - UN Documents: Gathering a body of global agreements which can be found at the UN.org web site. Which part of its text is the trap and what does it do? Hint, search on the word "progressive" What does "progressive liberalization" mean? When do these agreements expire?
What two prong test/criteria is used to determine what new or pre-existing service may be "public" and what is a trade barrier and thence may not be public, in the 163 WTO countries?

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zed2's picture

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zed2's picture

And as a theft of opportunity from business. Even Social Security and Medicare are framed as thefts from businesses.

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@zed2

leverage to screw workers or consumers is rationalized as "just business". But the weasel bastards do everything they can to destroy any agreement, cooperative, collective, or policy that gives workers or consumers an edge.

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zed2's picture

One of the biggest causes of World War II has been just blotted out of history books.

Also collaboration between the UK and the Nazis was a huge thing. Bigger than people have any idea.

Afterthe war it started back upagain and now we have it as neoliberalism.

Its like Nazism but just without Antisemitism has successfully taken over the world. Thats what we're getting. The corporatism part. With lip service paid to 3rd world oligarch's rights. Get ready, its here now. We have not learned any of the lessons of world War II except the ones least relevant to today. So the worship of war could go on.

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