Artificial intelligence poses new threats to human rights defenders, UN Human Rights Council to receive thematic report in June 2025

Published by Brent Patterson on February 3, 2025February 3, 2025

Photo: PBI-Mexico concerned Cerezo Committee on list the Ministry of National Defence targeted with Pegasus spyware (October 4, 2022).

There is no single, simple definition of artificial intelligence, but crucial elements of it include sorting through massive amounts of data, finding patterns, creating hyper-realistic video or audio recordings that can make it appear as if someone is saying or doing something they never did, and more.

Surveillance

In May 2022, the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) called for hearings on the use of artificial intelligence. They noted: “The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) generates new challenges for human rights, with expressed concern about the unprecedented level of surveillance across the globe by state and private actors, which is incompatible with human rights. Human rights defenders and dissenters face particular risks that they will be targeted…”

Karine Gentelet, a professor at the Université du Québec en Outaouais, and Sarit K. Mizrahi, a Ph.D. in Law Candidate at the University of Ottawa, have also warned: “AI systems created to monitor illegal activities have been used to track and target human rights defenders.”

Pegasus spyware

The reference by Gentelet and Mizrahi to human rights defenders links to a Forbidden Stories consortium article about Pegasus spyware developed by an Israeli company called the NSO Group.

It is believed that 85 human rights activists and 189 journalists are among the 50,000 phone numbers targeted by clients of the NSO Group since 2016.

The PBI-Mexico accompanied Espacio OSC has stated: “We stand in solidarity with the victims [of Pegasus espionage] and their families, among whom is the member of the Management Team of Consorcio Oaxaca, Yesica Sánchez Maya, as well as the Director of the Tlachinollan Human Rights Centre, Abel Barrera and the lawyer Vidulfo Rosales, who are also part of the Espacio OSC, as well as the other defenders and journalists subject to attempts at espionage.”

It is also believed that the Cerezo Committee and journalist Cecilio Pineda Birto (who was murdered in 2017) were targeted by Pegasus spyware.

Keyboard surveillance, digital union busting

A.J. Schumann and Omar Ocampo at the Washington, DC-based Institute for Policy Studies have commented: “When people speak of AI today, what they’re most often referring to are machines capable of making predictions through the identification of patterns in large datasets. … Military AI technology is being sold to corporations to subvert and disrupt unionization efforts before they gain momentum. Artificial intelligence is effectively used for digital union busting, identifying and firing labor organizers through keyboard tracking, Zoom call spying, and alert systems tracking when a large number of employees hold internal meetings.”

Digital surveillance technologies

Luke Stark, an Assistant Professor at Western University in London, Ontario, also cautions: “If you’re tracking things like public transit use via digital smart cards, geolocation data via cell phones, all these different kinds of digital traces, a state that is willing and able to put all that data together is going to be able to really, really crack down on dissent extraordinarily effectively.”

The fabrication of false information to discredit defenders

In October 2024, Mongabay reported: “[UN Special Rapporteur Michel Forst] says that there is a growing pattern of attacks against environmental and territorial defenders, ‘using increasingly sophisticated technological means that we were not used to in the past.’ Forst also told Mongabay Latam that not only is justice turning to artificial intelligence, but criminals are using it to fabricate videos, audios and other false information to discredit environmental defenders. ‘It’s an issue that we still don’t know how to deal with effectively.’”

Mining of raw materials required for AI

Heather Ashby, an independent researcher and consultant, also notes: “The physical infrastructure and components behind AI—data centers, advanced chips, and servers—directly impact countries throughout the world. Many of the raw materials required for AI infrastructure, including cobalt, copper, and lithium, are sourced from areas in the Global South, including countries facing ongoing conflicts or near lands where Indigenous communities are located, adversely impacting the environment for those communities. The extraction of these resources without regard for local communities contributes to fueling violence, human rights abuses, and environmental degradation.”

Report to be presented at Human Rights Council in June 2025

The UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights has also noted: “Pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 53/3, the United Nations Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises (the Working Group) will present a thematic report to the 59th session of the UN Human Rights Council in June 2025. The theme of the report will be ‘The Use of Artificial Intelligence and the UNGPs [UN Guiding Principles].’”

The Working Group adds: “The report seeks to clarify the respective duty and responsibility of States and businesses outside the technology sector, understood here as businesses which do not develop AI, to protect and respect human rights, as well as the roles of other relevant stakeholders, including civil society, human rights defenders, academia, and trade unions, in the context of the evolving landscape of AI procurement and deployment.”

We continue to follow this.

Tweets by PBI-Mexico.

From #PBIMéxico we express our concern about the use of #Pegasus in Mexico.

We call on the State to comply with the demands for transparency, exhaustive investigation and guarantees of non-repetition formulated by the @EspacioOsc

The @espacioOSC points out that in #México 🇲🇽 , the acts of espionage revealed by #PegasusProject:

“These were not isolated incidents and were part of a government policy that was characterized by attacks and acts of harassment against human rights defenders and journalists.”