Artificial Intelligence, Surveillance, and Human Rights: Governance Challenges in Uncertain Democracies

The rapid deployment of artificial intelligence across state and private actors has produced profound challenges to the protection of fundamental rights. Algorithmic decision-making, predictive policing, biometric surveillance, automated content moderation, and AI-assisted judicial systems raise urgent questions about accountability, due process, privacy, and equal protection, questions that human rights frameworks were not designed to answer at the pace and scale demanded by technological transformation.
This open panel addresses the following key research problem: How are existing human rights norms, institutions, and enforcement mechanisms adapting, or failing to adapt, to the governance challenges posed by artificial intelligence and digital surveillance in democratic and semi-democratic contexts?
The panel welcomes empirical, normative, and comparative papers addressing, among other issues: the adequacy of current international human rights law to regulate AI systems deployed by states and corporations; the differential impact of surveillance technologies on marginalized populations, including migrants, minorities, and political dissidents; the role of constitutional courts and human rights tribunals in adjudicating AI-related rights violations; the emerging regulatory landscape in the European Union, Brazil, China, and the United States; and the particular vulnerabilities of Global South democracies to AI-enabled authoritarian capture.
The panel connects directly to RC 26's research agenda on the causes of human rights violations and the role of international governmental and non-governmental organizations, while advancing the Congress theme of rethinking governance in the face of rapid technological transformation. Papers engaging with comparative methodology, interdisciplinary approaches combining law and political science, and perspectives from the Global South are especially encouraged.
A balanced representation of scholars in terms of region, gender, and career stage is a priority in the review of submitted abstracts, consistent with IPSA's diversity policy.