UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

59^th session

 

Interactive Dialogue with the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises

19 June 2024

EU statement

Mr President, 

The European Union would like to thank the Working Group for presenting the report*.  The EU welcomes the Working Group for the organisation of the Annual Forum on Business and Human Rights, a unique multistakeholder platform in the field of human rights due diligence. 

The EU and its Member States have consistently emphasised their support for a human-rights based approach to the whole life-cycle of new and emerging technologies, including AI systems. We believe that regarding the design, development, deployment and use of new and emerging technologies strong safeguards are needed to guarantee the protection of human rights. The EU aims to ensure transparency, fairness, and accountability in AI deployment through various frameworks including the Public Procurement Directives and the General Data Protection Regulation governing the use of personal data, including for AI procurement.

The AI Act regulates AI specifically and proposes classifying AI systems based on risk and sets out obligations for providers and users of high-risk AI systems regarding transparency, accountability, and oversight.  The ongoing public consultation on high-risk AI systems, open until 18 July aims is to collect practical examples and clarify issues relating to such systems. 

Finally, we would like to recall the 2019 Ethics Guidelines for trustworthy AI, which emphasise principles like human oversight, technical robustness, privacy, and non-discrimination.  

We appreciate the detailed recommendations of the report, and would like to ask under what framework would the Working Group propose to prohibit the deployment of AI systems that cannot comply with international human rights standards.

Thank you.

*Artificial intelligence procurement and deployment: ensuring alignment with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights