The BHR Group Digital Rights Careers Newsletter - Issue 4

Jul 28, 2022

Dear Colleagues:

This month we’re beginning our series of short interviews with some of the most thoughtful and impactful members of the global digital rights community. Our first star practitioner is Prof. Evelyn Aswad, who has experience in digital rights from her tenure in government, academia, multi-stakeholder initiatives, and also a new category of stakeholder (the Oversight Board).

On a personal note, Prof. Aswad and I were college classmates, and she has also been a mentor to Rebeca Joy West who is herself an outstanding lawyer and thinker on all things business and human rights as well as the creative mind behind this newsletter. Please send any questions you’d like us to consider asking practitioners to info@thebhrgroup.com.

Sincerely,

Michael Samway
The Business and Human Rights Group
www.thebhrgroup.com
Twitter: @MichaelSamway

Guest Spotlight: Professor Evelyn Aswad

Professor Evelyn Aswad is the Herman G. Kaiser Chair in International Law at the University of Oklahoma College of Law as well as the director of its Center for International Business & Human Rights. She is a member of the Oversight Board, which issues binding decisions on Facebook and Instagram with respect to their content moderation determinations as well as provides policy recommendations. Professor Aswad is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Law Institute, and an Academic Member of the Global Network Initiative. Her scholarship focuses on freedom of expression online and international corporate responsibility standards. Prior to becoming a law professor in 2013, she served as a career attorney at the U.S. Department of State for almost 14 years, most recently as a member of the Senior Executive Service and the director of the human rights law office. After law school, she worked as a corporate attorney at Arnold & Porter and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Arthur J. Gajarsa on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, DC. She is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and law school.

At what point in your career did you become involved in digital rights work?

During my time as a lawyer at the U.S. State Department, I served for many years in the human rights law office. When I had the freedom of expression portfolio, various countries were cracking down on online speech as well as seeking to weaken UN protections for freedom of expression. In addition, U.S. information and communication technology companies were being pressured by different countries to infringe on the free expression and privacy rights of individuals who used their platforms. Working to protect these rights in a variety of multilateral and bilateral settings as a human rights lawyer at the State Department was my first in-depth involvement in digital rights work. It was fast-paced, fascinating, and fulfilling.

What course did you take in college or law school that influences your digital rights work?

Well, I’d say that a class that was not focused on digital rights is what influences my work. When I was in college, I took an intensive seminar that examined various significant events in the history of U.S. engagement in international affairs. For each event, we tried to apply an ethical framework to what had transpired, and we also tried to examine each situation by analyzing sources from a variety of global viewpoints and areas of expertise. Those two lessons have shaped how I approach my digital rights work, i.e., try to apply an ethical framework to the digital sphere and examine digital rights issues from various stakeholder perspectives throughout the world.

What principles guide your work in the digital rights field?

I try to apply the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), which the U.S. government has endorsed, to the digital rights issues that I tackle in my work. The UNGPs call on companies to respect internationally recognized human rights in their business operations. My scholarship seeks to operationalize the principles in the UNGPs with respect to freedom of expression and related privacy issues that arise online, e.g., The Future of Freedom of Expression Online, Losing the Freedom to Be Human. In addition, in our work on the Oversight Board, we also examine Meta’s content moderation decisions and policies by referring to the UNGPs and seeking to respect international human rights standards in our assessments.

For undergraduate or graduate students reading this, what recommendations do you have in terms of seeking externships or jobs as they contemplate careers in digital rights?

I encourage students to take advantage of internship/externship opportunities to the maximum extent possible and to try to see the digital rights field from various perspectives while they are in school. I think that working on these issues within government, international organizations, NGOs, and the private sector can provide excellent experience and will help students decide where they feel most comfortable launching their careers. In terms of government internships, there are internships within the federal executive branch – both domestic-focused agencies and those with an international mandate – as well as internships in Congress that can provide a useful window into governmental regulation and approaches to digital rights. State governments have opportunities focused on digital rights issues as well. There are a wide variety of NGOs that do cutting edge work in this space (such as the Center for Democracy & Technology and Access Now) that have internship opportunities. Many information and communication technology companies also have opportunities for students. So I’d say it is worth it for students to invest time in researching and applying for these opportunities and trying to explore this field from various vantage points.

The BHR Group Digital Rights Careers Newsletter

The BHR Group Digital Rights Careers Newsletter - Issue 4

Guest Spotlight: Professor Evelyn Aswad

Positions in Policy, Law, and Digital Rights

Civil Society

Press/Media

Academia

International Organizations

Think Tanks

Multi-Stakeholder Organizations/Initiatives

Government

Industry

Boards

Industry Associations

Firms/Consultancies