Governments are increasingly turning to digital technologies such as GPS ankle monitors and tracking apps as so-called “alternatives to detention.” But a new report from UNSW Sydney’s Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, the International Detention Coalition and the Refugee Law Lab shows these tools too often replicate detention in digital form, restricting liberty, undermining dignity and causing real harm for people on the move.
This is a recording from a launch event held on 16 September 2025, to present the findings of a global study and introduce 10 Guiding Principles for ensuring technology reduces, rather than expands, detention.
Listen to explore how governments, civil society and technologists can move towards genuine rights-based alternatives that promote freedom, dignity and community integration.
With thanks to the Global Migration Centre at the Graduate Institute of Geneva for kindly hosting this event, and to Robert Bosch Stiftung for its generous support for this project. Read the report:
Download: 'From Surveillance to Empowerment: Advancing the Responsible Use of Technology in Alternatives to Detention' [https://www.unsw.edu.au/content/dam/pdfs/law/kaldor/2025-09-technology-in-alternatives-to-detention.pdf]
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Governments are increasingly turning to digital technologies such as GPS ankle monitors and tracking apps as so-called “alternatives to detention.” But a new report from UNSW Sydney’s Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, the International Detention Coalition and the Refugee Law Lab shows these tools too often replicate detention in digital form, restricting liberty, undermining dignity and causing real harm for people on the move.
This is a recording from a launch event held on 16 September 2025, to present the findings of a global study and introduce 10 Guiding Principles for ensuring technology reduces, rather than expands, detention.
Listen to explore how governments, civil society and technologists can move towards genuine rights-based alternatives that promote freedom, dignity and community integration.
With thanks to the Global Migration Centre at the Graduate Institute of Geneva for kindly hosting this event, and to Robert Bosch Stiftung for its generous support for this project. Read the report:
Download: 'From Surveillance to Empowerment: Advancing the Responsible Use of Technology in Alternatives to Detention' [https://www.unsw.edu.au/content/dam/pdfs/law/kaldor/2025-09-technology-in-alternatives-to-detention.pdf]
Recording of Panel Session 3 at the 2023 Kaldor Centre Conference, 'Learning from the future: Foresight for the next decade of forced migration' held on 20 November 2023 at UNSW Sydney.
Speakers:
Peter Lewis, Executive Director, Essential Media
Amanda Tattersall, Associate Professor of Practice, Sydney Policy Lab
Lenore Taylor, Editor, Guardian Australia
Shabnam Safa, Chairperson, National Refugee-led Advisory and Advocacy Group
Chair: Lauren Martin, Communications Manager, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law
As the Kaldor Centre embarked on its 10th anniversary, our flagship conference harnessed strategic foresight to inform the agenda for the decade to come. The 2023 Kaldor Centre Conference took participants 10 years into the future, to explore the forced migration challenges we may face in the decade to come. The purpose was not to predict the future, but to help us to be better prepared to shape the future we want to see and to help us think afresh about what we might need to do today to ensure protection for displaced people in the decade to come.
UNSW Kaldor Centre
Governments are increasingly turning to digital technologies such as GPS ankle monitors and tracking apps as so-called “alternatives to detention.” But a new report from UNSW Sydney’s Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, the International Detention Coalition and the Refugee Law Lab shows these tools too often replicate detention in digital form, restricting liberty, undermining dignity and causing real harm for people on the move.
This is a recording from a launch event held on 16 September 2025, to present the findings of a global study and introduce 10 Guiding Principles for ensuring technology reduces, rather than expands, detention.
Listen to explore how governments, civil society and technologists can move towards genuine rights-based alternatives that promote freedom, dignity and community integration.
With thanks to the Global Migration Centre at the Graduate Institute of Geneva for kindly hosting this event, and to Robert Bosch Stiftung for its generous support for this project. Read the report:
Download: 'From Surveillance to Empowerment: Advancing the Responsible Use of Technology in Alternatives to Detention' [https://www.unsw.edu.au/content/dam/pdfs/law/kaldor/2025-09-technology-in-alternatives-to-detention.pdf]
