4차 산업혁명 기술과 인권 보호

Fourh Industrial Revolution Technology and Human Rights Protection: Focusing on the Use of Blockchain Technology in Humanitarian Activities

Not enough attention has been given to the positive potential of Fourth Industrial Revolution technology to protect and promote human rights. The purpose of this article is to examine the bright side of this technology through the specific example of its use in humanitarian activities using the case of the World Food Programme’s Building Blocks Project. A blockchain is a form of Distributed Ledger Technology that records data in multiple nodes simultaneously. This decentralization feature enables reducing transaction costs by eliminating intermediaries such as financial institutions, and increases security through the transparency of transactions and consensual mechanisms. The features of decentralization, transparency, and security together increase the efficiency of humanitarian assistance while providing an opportunity to establish digital identity. This is important because digital identity would ultimately serve as the basis for realizing the rights of forcibly displaced people, including refugees, who have been prevented from accessing basic rights because they lack proof of identity. However, like all other new technologies, blockchain has met with reproach as well as reverence. There are concerns such as conflict with the principle of privacy protection, the interest of the tech developer, insecurity of decentralized digital currency, as well as the criticism leveled against blockchain technology itself that it lacks energy efficiency. Such concerns are prima facie based on the uncertainty inherent in new technologies. Therefore, realization of the possibilities and limitations of blockchain technology will largely depend on its further development and use.