Spain, worldwide pioneer on the protection of the citizens Digital Rights

"Today is an historic day: with the Charter for Digital Rights, Spain becomes the pioneer country in guaranteeing the protection of digital rights, thus leading the debate on technological humanism in Europe and worldwide". With these words, the Spanish secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, Carme Artigas, has presented the first draft of this Charter created with the aim of reinforcement the protection of rights and freedoms of the citizens in a changing digital environment due to the disruption of technological advance. The presentation, hosted by the Mobile World Capital Barcelona through the Digital Future Society initiative, included a debate between the experts who have drafted the initial Charter for Digital Rights, led by the Spanish Government.

The Charter works as a prescriptive document, not regulatory, proposes a framework for the public authorities' action in a way that allows navigating in the current digital environment, taking advantage of all its potentialities and minimizing its risks. It contributes to leading an essential and global process that guarantees a humanistic digital transformation, placing the people at the centre.

Artigas has highlighted the collaborative work developed: "The Charter is the result of an intense work of different actors, we have drawn the rights and freedoms that we want to debate, we make the first conclusions available to citizens now, already open for public consultation. We want this document has the highest consensus."

The secretary of State pointed out that "The digital transformation of Spain is vital for the economic recovery of our country; we must move towards a digital economy". Also added: "The Charter accomplishes several objectives: reinforce rights, generate certainties and guarantee the citizens security in the digital environment."

"This document aspires to turn into an ethical framework for digital rights that will become an international benchmark for the rest of the countries with a transversal, holistic and humanistic vision. A national project which leaves no one behind," emphasised Artigas.

The CEO of Mobile World Capital Barcelona, Carlos Grau, assured that "The preparation of the Charter highlights a reality that we can no longer ignore: we are experiencing a true digital emergency and we must be aware of the fragility of the digital moment we live in, before it was too late. We must create social awareness about digital emergency, we are all responsible for setting the roadmap, which must make us move forward as a society at the same pace as the technological advances."

At her turn, the Digital Future Society director, Cristina Colom, has pointed out the need to promote "a public-private collaboration in order to create new policies that address the digital future in a multidisciplinary and transversal way, but, above all, that it can be put into practice efficiently."

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SOURCE: Digital Future Society