IS30470

Our rights to privacy, to protest, and to speak out on matters of public importance are long-standing human rights that predate the digital, or “fourth”, industrial revolution, including the current period often described as an “AI summer”. However, emergent technologies, including artificial intelligence and the computer-vision surveillance tools that underpin many AI systems, are creating both new opportunities and significant challenges for the protection of human rights globally.

This technological disruption is unfolding at a critical inflection point, shaped by compounding geopolitical instability and the climate emergency. Amid growing questions about whether existing human rights protections remain effective in this context, there is increasing recognition that the impacts of these technologies are unevenly distributed. In particular, they often disproportionately affect populations that have been historically marginalised or that already experience ongoing human rights violations by states and corporate actors. Indeed, powerful corporate interests play a central role in setting the agenda, as they largely control the research, development, marketing, and deployment of these technologies to governments and populations alike.

This module examines how traditional human rights instruments are mobilised in response to technological disruption, considers where human rights rules and enforcement mechanisms struggle or stagnate, and explores, through mock sessions, the creative and adaptive strategies used by human rights defenders to contest technological power in the digital age.