Microsoft enters into 'truly groundbreaking agreement' to protect human rights

Microsoft has entered into a five-year partnership with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. As part of this agreement, the company will provide a grant of $5 million -- an unprecedented level of support from a private-sector organization.

The partnership goes beyond simply supporting the work of the UN Human Rights Office with money, however.

The software giant will also focus on the development and use of advanced technology to better predict, analyze and respond to critical human rights situations. The new partnership is based on two shared ideas:

• A commitment to ensuring technology plays a positive role in helping to promote and protect human rights.
• The recognition of the need for the private sector to play a bigger part in helping to advance the cause of human rights globally.

"As a global company that sees the problems of the world, we believe that we have a responsibility to help solve them," said Microsoft President Brad Smith. "We have an untapped opportunity to use the power of technology to collect data, analyze that data and equip the United Nations to advance human rights around the world."

The grant will be used to help create and deploy new technology solutions to strengthen the mission of the UN Human Rights Office.

"This could be a truly groundbreaking agreement," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein. "We live in a rapidly evolving age, where technology can either be used to solve human rights problems or misused to erode human rights. Similarly, companies can infringe people’s rights, or they can be a major progressive force. The private sector has an essential role to play in advancing human rights, and this partnership with Microsoft demonstrates how we can join forces in a constructive way. I hope this is just the beginning of something much bigger: that it helps stimulate a broad movement by the private sector to stand up for human rights. Increased support from major companies in the technology sector and other fields can clearly make a critical difference."

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