Human Rights Lunch Online is a digital seminar series of the Profile Area Human Rights where profile area members present their latest projects and research. Get new insights from the field of human rights research while enjoying your lunch!

This online seminar on April 11th will focus on the normative foundations of human rights law in the light of modern technological developments that could have a detrimental impact on individuals, society, and humanity as a whole. 

Alberto Rinaldi from the Faculty of Law has received seed money from the profile area for conducting an interdisciplinary workshop on “(Re)examining Human Rights Foundations in the Technological Age”. He will report about the workshop that focused on re-examining human rights normative foundations, specifically in relation to: 1) the right to freedom of thought; 2) the right to science; 3) the concept of human dignity. The idea was to move beyond non-discrimination, privacy, and data protection, the traditional triad that has in recent years attracted the focus of discussion. Bringing attention back to freedom of thought, but also on the conundrum posed by the right to science and, finally, on the concept of human dignity seems crucial in the advent of artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and biotechnological innovations.

Jessica Almqvist, professor of international law and human rights at the Faculty of Law, will present the Pufendorf theme “Greyzone Genomics, which is a joint initiative by scholars from medicine, law, intelligence and national defence studies. The basic aim is to explore the ethical, legal, and social implications of new, large-scale genetic technologies in times of conflict. The project team explores novel, multidisciplinary methods for assessing risks of use and abuse of new biotechnologies, focusing on genomics and synthetic biology, during conflict, including in hybrid warfare. Through this theme the team seeks to advance a new research frontier on the border between medicine, national security and human rights to explore countermeasures against the most probable and consequential scenarios in a changing geopolitical environment.

Open for everyone!