As part of the NGO Forum ahead of the 85th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies convened a panel on the issue of 'AI and Human Rights in Africa: Navigating the Future of Governance and Development'.
The panel on artificial intelligence (AI) and human rights was held on 19 October 2025 with panellists from Avocats sans frontières France, the Centre for Information Technology and Development, Baobab Bytes, Dadaïdes, and the European Union Delegation to Nigeria, with moderation from the University of Lagos.
The discussion highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of the existing legal framework – or lack thereof – in Africa with respect to AI.
Participants pointed to the African Union Convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data Protection – the so-called Malabo Convention, adopted in 2014 – and, at the same time, the common absence of binding domestic legislation on AI within African States at the national level.
In this last regard, the panel delved into the cases of Nigeria and Ghana and the gaps in their respective AI legal and policy frameworks.
The AI industry is an extractive industry in Africa.Stéphanie Lamy, Dadaïdes
Policy issues raised by the panel include cyberaddiction, algorithmic manipulation and targeting, lack of transparency at a technical level, data sovereignty, and – foreign – AI companies as extractive industries in Africa. The economic opportunities of AI and the potential for multilingualism in Africa were also raised.
In our interventions, ISHR called for a human rights-based approach to AI law, ethics, and policy in Africa, with a particular emphasis on the right to privacy.
At the 11th Session of the Open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations, ISHR urged all States to include and protect language that explicitly safeguards human rights defenders, impacted communities and the environment.
Relatives of the Chilean Indigenous environmental defender Julia Chuñil must be granted immediate protections by the Chilean State, the Committee to Support Implementation and Compliance of the Escazú Agreement ruled, in response to a request supported by ISHR. This marks the first time the regional treaty urges a signatory State to take protective action.
Indigenous women human rights defenders (WHRDs) and women safeguarding land and community rights from across the globe gathered in Geneva from 22 to 26 September to take part in the Women Human Rights Advocacy Week (WHRD-AW) 2025.
