PI seeks to inform report on AI and racial discrimination of the UN Special Rapporteur on racism

Privacy International (PI)  welcomes the opportunity to provide input to the forthcoming report the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related tolerance to the 56th session of Human Rights Council which will examine and analyse the relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and non-discrimination and racial equality, as well as other international human rights standards.

AI applications are becoming a part of everyday life: social media newsfeeds, mediating traffic flow in cities, connected consumer devices, automated cars, eligibility mechanisms for welfare services, access to medical diagnostics, location tracking, spam filters, voice recognition systems, and search engines. If implemented responsibly, AI applications have the potential to promote the enjoyment of human rights. However, there is a growing evidence that commercial and state use has a detrimental impact on human rights, and exacerbate existing inequalities and discriminatory practices.

Our submission focuses on the use of AI applications in specific sectors and how they can negatively affect the enjoyment of rights such as the right to privacy and freedom from discrimination in particular racial discrimination - in the areas of health, migration, welfare and social protection, and employment, in addition to specific discriminatory AI enabled technologies such as facial recognition technology by law enforcement and the private sector.

In particular PI suggests the following main aspects should be covered in the UNSR’s report:

• Establish the need for a human rights-based approach to all AI applications and describe the necessary measures to achieve it including human rights by design and human rights impact assessments, as well as ensure the meaningful participation of affected communities in decision-making processes.
• Identify the racial discrimination risks of specific AI applications, due to the technologies employed and/or the context of their use; and describe the circumstances when AI applications should be banned because of human rights concerns, including concerns of discrimination and in particular racial discrimination.
• Recommend states to adopt or review existing discrimination law, effective data protection legislation, and sectoral laws to address the negative human rights implications of AI applications – at individual, group and society level, including by effectively regulating the use of AI technologies by private companies.
• Explore the scope of state’s obligation to ensure that public sector uses of AI technologies – particularly in health care, welfare, migration, policing, and surveillance, is used responsibly, and does not result or exacerbate racial discrimination
• Define the scope of responsibility of non-state actors, including companies, for AI uses and the need for mechanisms to ensure that they are held accountable.