Generative AI: Threatening Established Human Rights Instruments at Scale

We assess the impacts of generative AI technologies within the context of rights and freedoms enshrined in two codified international covenants, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Additionally, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) are explored in tandem to further motivate the requirement for businesses and States to carry out human rights due diligence processes. By providing specific use cases and examples of how generative AI’s cross-sectoral risks threaten established human rights and freedoms, such as the freedom of opinion and expression and the right to privacy, we argue that proper governance and accountability mechanisms for generative AI should be based in codified international human rights instruments and support frameworks such as the UNGPs. This paper is intended to serve as a catalogue of concrete evidence to support the enforcement and uptake of human rights due diligence processes and foster conversations at the policy level.