The integration of a Human Rights-Based Approach to Data (HRBAD) with open-source geospatial and remote sensing data presents a powerful tool for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while ensuring no one is left behind. This talk/presentation will explore how HRBAD principles can be applied to open geospatial data, focusing on use cases and applications that enhance our understanding of human rights issues and support evidence-based policy-making.
I will introduce the concept of HRBAD, emphasizing its six key principles: participation, data disaggregation, self-identification, transparency, privacy, and accountability. I'll then try to demonstrate how these principles align with and can be implemented in open-source geospatial and remote sensing data initiatives.

The presentation will showcase several key use cases and applications:

Participatory Mapping for Inclusive Development: Examples of how platforms like OpenStreetMap enable marginalized communities to contribute to data collection, improving accuracy and empowering advocacy efforts.
Disaggregated Geospatial Analysis for Inequality Assessment: Demonstrating how fine-grained spatial analysis using open satellite imagery can reveal patterns of inequality, supporting the HRBAD principle of data disaggregation.
Transparent Earth Observation for Environmental Justice: exploring the applications of open satellite data for monitoring environmental changes and holding actors accountable for degradation affecting marginalized communities.
Capacity Building through Open Geospatial Education: exploring initiatives that use open data and tools to educate and empower communities in using geospatial technologies for advocacy.

I will discuss how these applications relate to HRBAD principles and consider some of the challenges in using open geospatial data for human rights applications. This includes touching on issues of data quality and accessibility.

The presentation will suggest ways to incorporate HRBAD principles into open geospatial data initiatives, offering practical considerations for data collection, analysis, and dissemination that align with human rights principles.

Through these examples, I hope to illustrate the potential of combining open-source geospatial data with a human rights-based approach, and how this could contribute to more inclusive and effective sustainable development efforts.

This presentation aims to interest professionals from various fields, including geospatial science, human rights, development, policy, and data science. It hopes to encourage further dialogue on the use of open geospatial data in human rights and sustainable development contexts and on applying HRBA to open-source geospatial data.