A new tool to protect human rights in digital health has been released by STOPAIDS today, 7th October 2025.
Putting People and Human Rights First in Digital Health is a practical tool to uphold and advance human rights within health programmes using digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI). Designed to help implementers, communities, funders, and civil society in protecting and promoting human rights within digital health interventions, the resource is freely available on the STOPAIDS website.
The toolkit includes a checklist to help practitioners tackle six critical challenges facing individuals and communities when using digital technologies and AI for health: accessibility, literacy and empowerment, safety and efficacy, privacy, access to justice, and participation. It also includes guiding questions for implementers and donors to consider during the design, implementation, and evaluation of digital health programmes to address key challenges to human rights.
The resource has been created by STOPAIDS in response to growing concerns that digital and AI-based technologies in healthcare are progressing more rapidly than the protections in place for human rights, as part of global partnership initiative the Digital Health and Rights Project (DHRP). DHRP research published earlier this year – Paying the Costs of Connection: Human Rights of Young Adults in the Digital Age in Colombia, Ghana, Kenya and Vietnam – highlighted risks associated with digital health programmes including the consequences of inadequate data protection, technology-facilitated abuse, and overlapping digital divides leaving many without access to essential health information and services.
Mike Podmore, CEO of STOPAIDS, said: “The digital health transformation has reached every corner of the globe, increasing access to services and enhancing the efficiency of health systems for millions. But the rapid proliferation of digital technologies and the emergence of powerful AI-based tools for health have outpaced protections of human rights for many.
“Grounded in human rights law, our Putting People and Human Rights First in Digital Health resource is a practical tool that can be used to address key gaps when it comes to digital health. We encourage donors and implementers to use this checklist as a framework to assess how their digital health programme supports the realisation of human rights – and where it can be strengthened.”
STOPAIDS is sharing the guide with their global network of stakeholders, it is also available to download on their website, STOPAIDS.org.uk
DHRP was formed in 2019 in response to the rapid growth of partnerships between health agencies and health-tech companies. The project gathers empirical evidence of the effects of the digital transformation on young adults living with HIV and young key populations in low- and middle-income countries – and utilizes this evidence to inform national and global health governance. Hosted by The University of Warwick, the consortium includes Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+) , The Kenya Legal & Ethical Issues Network on HIV & AIDS (KELIN), Privacy International, Restless Development, STOPAIDS, and Universidad de los Andes.
Allan Maleche, Executive Director, KELIN, said: “This checklist is an essential tool for ensuring that digital health innovations do not leave our most vulnerable behind. In Kenya and across the Global South, we see daily how digital divides, weak data protections, and technology-facilitated abuses can deepen health inequities. By putting people and human rights at the center, this tool helps donors and implementers align innovation with dignity, equity, and justice. It is a timely reminder that digital health must advance rights, not compromise them.”
Catalina González-Uribe, Research Director, Center for Sustainable Development Goals for Latin America and the Caribbean at Universidad de Los Andes, said: “This new brief provides donors and implementers with a practical checklist of the right questions to guide their health programs that utilize digital technologies and artificial intelligence, embedding ethics, equity, and accountability into every stage of their work, and ensuring digital innovation becomes a tool for empowerment and inclusion. Grounded in human rights, it provides a roadmap that bridges global norms with on-the-ground realities, enabling funders and implementers to design digital health programs that are inclusive, rights-based, and resilient in the face of rapid technological change.”