The UAE’s Permanent Committee for Human Rights (PCHR), in collaboration with the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy (AGDA) and with the input of the British Institute for International and Comparative Law hosted a Fireside Chat titled, “Step into the Future: Human Rights in the Metaverse”. This Fireside Chat brought together policymakers, industry leaders, scientists, human rights experts, academics, students, and members of the diplomatic community to explore the updates of the emerging metaverse for the protection and promotion of human rights in our rapidly evolving digital age.
The event, held on 24 April at AGDA, was the second of six events to take place between February and June 2025. This series builds on the successful conclusion of the first round of seven discussions organised in 2024, which saw over 700 attendees from various fields and more than 20 speakers including academics, policymakers and civil society and rights advocates.
Within the framework of emphasizing the importance of a future-oriented vision and cooperation in addressing the challenges arising from the rapid development of the “Metaverse” and advanced technologies, H.E. Omran Sharaf, Assistant Foreign Minister for Advanced Science and Technology, expressed his great appreciation for the potential of these transformative technologies, stressing the need to adopt a responsible governance approach to ensure their optimal utilization.
His Excellency said in this regard: The “Metaverse” represents a pivotal opportunity to reshape the features of our communication and interaction, in light of the accelerated technological development the world is witnessing, which has become an integral part of daily human life and has a profound impact on the quality of life.
His Excellency added: “In this context, the need arises to reconsider our approach to human rights in a way that keeps pace with this new reality and differs from the methods adopted in the past. It is important to look at multiple aspects, including the demographic composition of societies, their values and cultures, in addition to understanding the political systems and the nature of the existing systems in each country, to ensure comprehensive benefit from these technologies, while respecting the cultural and social specificities of each society. This may require a re-evaluation of some traditional concepts of human rights that may impose narrow definitions that do not keep pace with this development. The UAE affirms its commitment to international cooperation to ensure that these technologies serve humanity, while maintaining respect for the diversity and national specificities of each country.”
Hind Alowais, Director of the Permanent Committee for Human Rights, pointed to the need to recognize human rights as an inherently intersectional issue—one that cuts across all areas of policy, including emerging domains like the metaverse. She underscored the importance of integrating human rights considerations from the very outset, ensuring they are not treated as an afterthought but as a foundational element of policy design and technological development.
The speakers unanimously agreed that the metaverse offers unprecedented opportunities for areas such as inclusive education, remote healthcare, and civic engagement, it also introduces novel risks and challenges, - ranging from misuse of personal data, to new forms of harassment and discrimination and the potential to replicate or even exacerbate existing inequalities.
Anas Metwaly (Head of Public Policy, GCC at Meta) spoke of the importance of responsibly building emerging technologies and ensuring equitable access to wellbeing of the digital world, stating that, “At Meta, we believe that innovation and responsibility must go hand in hand. As we build the next generation of technologies — whether that’s the metaverse, GenAI or smart wearables, our goal is to ensure they’re safe, inclusive and trusted by the people who use them. That’s why every major product and technology we launch goes through rigorous testing, including red-teaming, privacy reviews, and risk assessments. We collaborate closely with policymakers, academic, civil society organizations and human rights experts to establish common standards and governance frameworks, helping to shape responsible innovation across the region and beyond.”
The participants emphasized the need to expedite the development of regulatory frameworks that keep pace with these developments and keep human rights and dignity at the core of all progress and transformation witnessed in technological innovation.
During the meeting, the evolving questions around accountability and regulation were reviewed. As the metaverse continues to develop across borders and within increasingly decentralized structures, participants reflected on the potential human rights considerations in these digital spaces. According to Professor Melodena Stephens (Innovation & Technology Governance, Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government), “the metaverse is a dual-use technology only bound by the scarcity of resources like human data and imagination, financing, energy, earth's limited resources and our good governance. For us to unleash its positive potential we need to be ruthlessly honest about its challenges when it comes to its ability to infringe our human rights and the trade-offs we are willing to make for short-term benefits."