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Ars Electronica
2 March 2020
Artificial intelligence (AI) is bound to enable innovation in the decades to come. On the one hand, AI technologies may be used to improve societal well-being and help fight human rights abuses. On the other hand, AI presents a variety of challenges that can profoundly affect the respect for and protection of human rights. Therefore, it is important to place international human rights law (IHRL) at the centre of discussions about AI governance.
Our New Research Brief Human Rights and the Governance of Artificial Intelligence discusses the opportunities and risks that AI represents for human rights, recalls that IHRL should occupy a central place in the governance of AI and outlines two additional avenues to regulation: public procurement and standardization.
Written by Dr Ana Beduschi, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Exeter, the paper also calls for a more coordinated approach – under the United Nations leadership – that breaks silos and goes beyond sectoral and specialized audiences.
‘This paper manages to clearly present key challenges that AI raises for the promotion and protection of human rights and proposes solid and feasible pathways to ensure that AI does not infringe upon human rights. In an area where the debate is often blurry and the stakeholders do not speak the same language or understand the same concepts, it addresses everyone involved in the regulation of AI: the private sector with notably the technology industry, governments, international organizations, civil society and academia’ underlines Felix Kirchmeier, Manager of Policy Studies at the Geneva Academy and Executive Director of the Geneva Human Rights Platform.
Recently, a profusion of initiatives from a variety of actors spanning from the technology industry to international and regional organizations, academia and civil society, have focused on establishing ethical frameworks for the design and implementation of AI solutions.
‘While these are valuable initiatives that propose to identify core ethical principles applicable to AI, IHRL should also be taken into consideration as it provides a legally binding framework for dealing with potential human rights violations’ explains Dr Ana Beduschi.
Regulation is certainly important, in particular concerning data protection and privacy. Nonetheless, new models of governance, placed alongside regulatory frameworks and existing human rights instruments, are also needed.
‘In this paper, I identify two additional avenues to regulation that guarantee that IHRL occupies a prominent place in the governance of AI: public procurement and standardization’ underlines Dr Ana Beduschi.
As shown by the multitude of initiatives on AI, most stakeholders tend to operate in silos and produce multiple reports, guidelines, blueprints and statements of principles which often fail to reach beyond sectoral and specialized audiences.
‘The UN should take the lead and bring these stakeholders together, coordinating their efforts to tackle the challenges posed by AI and ensuring that human rights are firmly embedded into the design, development and deployment of AI systems across the globe’ stresses Dr Ana Beduschi.
This Research Brief is the result of the research that Dr Ana Beduschi carried out during a three-month fellowship at the Geneva Academy.
‘I am particularly grateful for the opportunity to engage and interact with the Geneva Academy researchers, staff, and experts. The friendly and productive ambience at Villa Moynier allowed me to develop my research on artificial intelligence and reflect on its implications for the protection of human rights in the digital age.’
News
Geneva Academy
The new GHRP Fridays series, launched in November 2021, allows stakeholders to discuss the outcomes of the 2020 TB Review by the UN General Assembly and practical ways to implement change.
News
Geneva Academy
In 2021, the Geneva Human Rights Platform developed and launched a new online tool for all UN treaty body members to interact online as a community of practice, consult each other, collaborate on tasks, connect to share news and information, and contribute material to a resource library
Event
Brill
This event marks the launch of our LLM alumna Jelena Plamenac’s award-winning book ‘Unravelling Unlawful Confinement in Contemporary Armed Conflicts’ published by Brill.
Event
the blowup, Unsplash
The Geneva Human Rights Platform team will be travelling to New York to host a side event on ‘Implementing the Treaty Body Review 2020 – where do we stand’.
Training
Dustan Woodhouse, Unplash
This training course will explore the major international and regional instruments for the promotion of human rights, as well as with their implementation and enforcement mechanisms; and provide practical insights into the different UN human rights mechanisms pertinent to advancing environmental issues and protecting environmental human rights defenders.
Project
Dave Klassen/The EITI
This project aims to further identify and clarify policies and practices for States and business, including public and private investors, across the full ‘conflict cycle’ and the ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ pillars of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Project
CCPR Centre
This project examined how IHL could be more systematically, appropriately and correctly dealt with by the human rights mechanisms emanating from the UN Charter, as well as from universal and regional treaties.
Publication
