International talks to revolutionise how the European Court of Human Rights handles migration cases will begin on Wednesday. The British government is urging partners to modernise the way states tackle the continent-wide illegal migration crisis. The talks are the most significant sign yet that international human rights law could be reinterpreted to make it easier for states to target people smuggling and set up'returns hubs' to hold people with no right to be in Europe. Writing ahead of the major meeting in Strasbourg, Sir Keir Starmer and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said other nations should rethink human rights laws to make protecting borders easier. Critics say the ECHR is getting in the way of removing more illegal migrants, while supporters say claims about the ECHR's role in migration are exaggerated.

The world is heading towards a dangerous place where selective government outrage and "a la carte" application of international law are becoming the norm. The result is already damning: a crisis of credibility and the erosion of trust in international institutions and governments, putting in peril the rules-based world order. As the heads of Amnesty International and Center for Civilians in Conflict, two of the world's most prominent organisations for human rights and protection of civilians, we have a simple demand for the world leaders who will be coming together on Friday for the 2024 Munich Security Conference: Protect international humanitarian and international human rights laws which are the best tools we have for protecting civilians in times of conflict, and stop creating exceptions that weaken rights protection and endanger global security and stability. Unfortunately, in 2023, world leaders responded unevenly to the countless violations of international humanitarian and human rights law we witnessed in various conflicts across the world. They expressed outrage at the crimes committed by some warring parties while offering diplomatic cover for others.

Urgent action is needed as it can take time to assess and address the serious risks this technology poses to human rights, warned the High Commissioner: "The higher the risk for human rights, the stricter the legal requirements for the use of AI technology should be". Ms. Bachelet also called for AI applications that cannot be used in compliance with international human rights law, to be banned. "Artificial intelligence can be a force for good, helping societies overcome some of the great challenges of our times. But AI technologies can have negative, even catastrophic, effects if they are used without sufficient regard to how they affect people's human rights". On Tuesday, the UN rights chief expressed concern about the "unprecedented level of surveillance across the globe by state and private actors", which she insisted was "incompatible" with human rights.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is finding its way into more and more aspects of our daily lives. It is in the algorithms designed to improve our health diagnostics. And it is used in the predictive policing tools used by the police to fight crime. Each of these examples throws up potential problems when it comes to the protection of our human rights. Predictive policing, if not correctly designed, can lead to discrimination based on race, gender or ethnicity.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is finding its way into more and more aspects of our daily lives. It is in the algorithms designed to improve our health diagnostics. And it is used in the predictive policing tools used by the police to fight crime. Each of these examples throws up potential problems when it comes to the protection of our human rights. Predictive policing, if not correctly designed, can lead to discrimination based on race, gender or ethnicity.

This blogpost was co-authored by Mark Latonero, PhD, Data & Society Research Lead, Data & Human Rights and Melanie Penagos, Data & Society Research Analyst, Data & Human Rights. The first blogpost in a series on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, it summarizes a multidisciplinary workshop held at Data & Society on April 26 and 27, 2018. Multiple sectors of our global society are grappling to make sense of how AI may transform or alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another and our institutions. At the same time, "Artificial Intelligence" is a slippery and highly contextual concept -- the way a mathematician defines AI can diverge significantly from a marketing executive or a causal reader of science fiction. This tension makes discussions about norms that could shape or regulate AI systems a thoroughly contested and challenging space.