Watch: “How to Work with Tech Companies on Human Rights”

David Sullivan, director of learning and development at the Global Network Initiative, has worked closely with technology companies on vexing human rights challenges, from conflict minerals in hardware supply chains to fighting censorship and surveillance online.

In his talk at the Berkman Klein Center, David walked through lessons learned for digital rights advocates from his ten years of experience: knowing what a win looks like and when secrecy is appropriate, finding the right balance between industry-wide competition and collaboration, and “arguing from facts, with nouns and verbs, as opposed with adjectives and adverbs,” to name a few. Following his remarks, GNI academic member Chinmayi Arun joined David in a discussion of GNI’s own multistakeholder advocacy and shared learning, and the unique challenges for human rights in the ever-evolving information and communications technology sector.