This meeting will bring together partners to reflect on emerging challenges and explore collective responses in an increasingly complex digital
landscape.

Date: April 15, 2026
Time: 1.30 PM – 3.00 PM (New York)
Location: The Permanent Mission of Sweden to the United Nations, 1 Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza (885 Second Avenue, 46th Floor; New York, NY 10017)
Format: 1.5 hour Roundtable Discussion (By invitation only)

Agenda:

1. Welcome and Opening Remarks
   ● Introduction by the host – outline context for and objectives of meeting
   ● Brief round of participant introductions
2. Data Governance and Privacy in Health Initiatives
   A. Policy pressures are accelerating the creation and normalisation of parallel datagovernance arrangements, where sensitive health information may be used in ways that do not fully prioritise privacy and individual protection.
   B. Emerging country case to illustrate how gaps in data governance and privacy
   frameworks can disproportionately harm marginalised communities
3. What can we as a global community do to help safeguard these spaces?
   A. A key question for discussion is what the global community can collectively do to help safeguard digital and data spaces.
4. Next Steps and Closing Reflections
   ● Summary of key insights and proposed actions
   ● Closing remarks

Concept Note

(link to PDF)

Data, research, and digital technologies are rapidly reshaping health systems, governance models, and policy ecosystems. These shifts are opening new pathways to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Digital platforms can expand access to SRH information and services, strengthen the continuity of care, support frontline providers with real‑time tools, and reach individuals who face persistent legal, geographic, or social barriers to accessing essential services.

For many people digital tools can serve as a critical bridge where traditional public health or education systems fall short. At the same time, these opportunities come with profound risks. Weak data governance frameworks leave sensitive personal information vulnerable. Emerging forms of digital surveillance pose serious threats to bodily autonomy, confidentiality, and informed consent. These risks fall most heavily on individuals from criminalised or marginalised communities, including those seeking SRH services such as abortion care, HIV treatment, or gender‑affirming health services. For these populations, data misuse can result in social harm, discrimination, prosecution, or violence. Without strong rights‑based frameworks, digitalisation can reinforce inequalities rather than reduce them.

The growing use of cross-border data-sharing arrangements adds a further layer of complexity. In particular, concerns have been raised about the increasing cross-border exchange of sensitive personal health data, often taking place without sufficient safeguards, transparency, or clear limitations on downstream use. Questions remain as to how data protection is ensured once information moves beyond national legal frameworks, including issues of accountability, oversight, and long-term governance. Civil society organisations have documented widespread uncertainty and hesitation around such practices.

Key questions remain around:
● What protections apply once personal data crosses borders?
● How will data be used, stored, or linked in foreign systems?
● How might such data-sharing practices impact communities whose health‑seeking behaviours are criminalised or politically targeted?

These concerns reflect broader governance gaps at the intersection of global health, digital innovation, and human rights. As countries increasingly negotiate cross‑border digital health partnerships, there is a need to establish clear standards for privacy, informed consent, accountability, and long‑term data stewardship. Given these fast‑moving dynamics, there is an urgent need for strengthened dialogue and collaboration between Nordic partners and Global South civil society.

This meeting aims to bring together regional partners to:
● Share frontline insights on the opportunities and risks posed by digital SRHR tools, including platform censorship, surveillance‑driven harms, and obstacles to trusted SRH information;
● Explore experiences with cross-border data-sharing frameworks, including emerging concerns related to the exchange of sensitive health data across
jurisdictions, and consider their implications for national policy autonomy, community safety, and compliance with human rights obligations;
● Strengthen cross‑regional cooperation ahead of CPD negotiations, ensuring coordinated messaging and collective advocacy for rights‑based approaches to technology and data governance.

Objective

This session is intended to deepen mutual understanding of how digital technologies can be designed, regulated, and governed to ensure that innovation supports rather than undermines human rights, equality, and bodily autonomy. It will also create space to examine the political and ethical implications of global data‑sharing arrangements, and to discuss how to advocate for stronger protections in multilateral and bilateral contexts.

Organizers: Sex og Politikk, Väestöliitto, RFSU, Sex og samfund
Co-sponsored by: Permanent Mission of Norway to the UN, Permanent Mission of Sweden to the UN, Permanent Mission of Finland to the UN

Photo: By Kidfly182