Emerging Technologies and Human Rights from the Perspective of the Inter-American Legal Framework

Resumen

The article identifies the human rights standards of the Inter-American Human Rights System (IAHRS) that apply to emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, neurotechnologies, and facial recognition. It examines four rights protected by the American Convention on Human Rights — privacy and personal data protection, freedom of expression, equality and non-discrimination, and due process — and maps three tensions running through current regulatory instruments: general frameworks versus use-specific rules, risk-based versus rights-based approaches, and ethical guidance versus binding legal obligation. It concludes that the tools the IAHRS offers are legal rather than ethical in nature, that the resulting obligations fall on states first and on the private sector only indirectly, and that risk-based approaches must be anchored in the standards of legality, necessity, and proportionality.

Agustina Del Campo, “Emerging Technologies and Human Rights from the Perspective of the Inter-American Legal Framework”, Artículo de investigación No. 74 (ENG), Centro de Estudios en Libertad de Expresión (CELE), Buenos Aires (2025)