Population Registers, Ethics, and Human Rights

An IUSSP initiative carried out in collaboration with WiSER, ISER & IIGH with the aid of a grant from IDRC - March 2023

The IUSSP recently launched a new Scientific Panel on Population Registers, Ethics and Human Rights. This new panel is a follow-up panel to the IUSSP Scientific Panel on Population Perspectives and Demographic Methods to Strengthen CRVS Systems - which concluded its work in December 2022. The overall purpose of this initiative is to infuse interdisciplinary perspectives, drawing on perspectives from law, history, economics, public policy, demography, and public health, to address the ethical and human rights challenges that are emerging as population register systems are modernized and digitized. The panel, chaired by Romesh Silva, is generously supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC, Canada) and draws heavily on new interdisciplinary collaborations between the IUSSP, the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER, South Africa), the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health (IIGH, USA) and the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER, Uganda).

One of the major initiatives of this new panel on population registers, ethics and human rights is the hosting of a residential fellowship program for early-career researchers and practitioners to support interdisciplinary research on population registers, ethics and human rights. An open call for applications was launched last summer and the three selected fellows – Georges Macaire Eyenga, Elizabeth Nansubuga and Janaina Costa – began their fellowship in Johannesburg, South Africa. The residential fellowship was kicked off with an orientation workshop held from 13 to 18 February, which was attended by the entire Team: Keith Breckenridge and Jonathan Klaaren (WISER), Brian Kiira and Salima Namusobya (ISER), Laura Ferguson and Sofia Gruskin (IIGH) and virtually by the Panel chair Romesh Silva (UNFPA).

Orientation workshop in Johannesburg. 13-18 February 2023

The panel and IUSSP Population, Ethics and Human Rights Fellows will provide regular updates on their research and interdisciplinary dialogues at this project webpage - so stay tuned! Also - the panel will organize a session for the upcoming 2025 IUSSP International Population Conference in Brisbane to explore ethical and human rights challenges associated with the modernization of population register systems. For more information about the panel’s work, please contact Paul Monet at the IUSSP Secretariat.

Orientation Week:

Panel Chair Romesh Silva presenting remotely during the Orientation Workshop.

Salima Namusobya, Brian Kiira and Keith Breckenridge.

Jonathan Klaaren, Laura Ferguson and Sofia Gruskin.

Georges Macaire Eyenga, Elizabeth Nansubuga and Janaina Costa.

Hybrid session during the Orientation Workshop.