ACHPR Resolution 473
The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights adopted Resolution 473, or the Resolution on the need to undertake a Study on human and peoples’ rights and artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and other new and emerging technologies in Africa in March 2021. The resolution broadly calls for a study on the impact of AI and emerging technologies on human rights in Africa, emphasizing the need for legal frameworks, human control, and the integration of African values.
It centres the protection and promotion of human rights in Africa, and recognizes that AI presents both opportunities and perils for the promotion and protection of human rights in Africa. It also emphasizes the importance of the access to the Internet in the digital age and its impact on the realization of human rights, and calls out the challenges and concerns that emerge from autonomous systems that are not under meaningful human control and are subject to the use of algorithms. The Resolution also highlights challenges from AI and digital technologies to data protection and information disorder, hate speech, and the challenges of content-takedowns by algorithms that can impact evidence of human rights violations.
It highlights the need for the comprehensive governance of AI, emphasizes on the importance of participation by African states and people, and also names the harms and violations of human rights that ensue from the use of lethal autonomous weapons.
Accordingly, the resolution calls on States to:
Develop and use AI in ways that are compatible with their rights and duties under the African Charter and other regional and global human rights instruments.
Ensure that all AI technologies, robotics, and other new and emerging technologies imported from other continents are made applicable to or adjusted to suit Africa’s needs, with due consideration for African values and norms in formulating AI governance mechanisms.
Ensure transparency in the use of AI technologies, robotics, and other new and emerging technologies and that decisions made in the use of such technologies are easily understandable by those affected by such decisions.
Work towards a comprehensive legal and ethical governance framework for AI technologies, robotics and other new and emerging technologies so as to ensure compliance with the African Charter and other regional treaties.
Ensure that all AI technologies, robotics and other new and emerging technologies which have far reaching consequences for humans must remain under meaningful human control in order to ensure that the threat that they pose to fundamental human rights is averted.
In addition, it also calls on the African Union and regional bodies to urgently place on their agendas the rapid issue of AI technologies, robotics and other new and emerging technologies with a view to develop a regional regulatory framework that ensures that these technologies respond to the needs of the people of the continent. Finally, it commits to conduct a study to develop guidelines and norms that address issues relating to AI technologies, robotics and other new and emerging technologies and their impact on human rights in Africa working together with an African Group of Experts on AI and new technologies.
