Seminar at UN Human Rights Council warns against use of AI as tool for repression in IIOJK
Geneva: The Community Human Rights Advocacy Centre (CHRAC), on the sidelines of the 63rd Session of the Human Rights Council, organized a critical seminar “Artificial Intelligence: Impacts on Civil and Political Rights.”
According to Kashmir Media Service, the event brought together international human rights defenders, legal scholars, and representatives from global advocacy bodies to address the accelerating harms produced by AI, with a specific and urgent focus on the unfolding situation in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
The seminar highlighted that Artificial Intelligence is not a neutral tool but a set of technologies that can magnify surveillance, information control, and profiling. The speakers argued that in contexts of protracted securitization—such as Indian-occupied Kashmir—AI is being deployed to undermine fundamental rights protected under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), including the right to privacy (Art. 17), freedom of expression (Art. 19), and the right to an effective remedy (Art. 2(3)).
Altaf Hussain Wani, representative of World Muslim Congress, emphasized the intersection of technology and state control, noting how AI-driven tools are used to entrench patterns of repression in conflict-affected zones.
Dr. Muzamil Ayub Thakur, representative of CHRAC, detailed the “accountability gap,” where victims of algorithmic harms face “black-box” models and corporate secrecy, making it nearly impossible to seek legal redress.
Zaffar Ahmed Qurashi, of Global Kashmir Alliance highlighted the devastating impact of communications shutdowns and the role of algorithmic content moderation in silencing the few remaining independent voices in Kashmir.
Sajjad Ali, research scholar, University of Geneva, provided academic and legal analysis on the risks of biometric systems and predictive policing, warning that without independent oversight, AI threatens to automate discrimination and erode the presumption of innocence.
The panel presented concrete evidence of the “surveillance ecosystem” in Kashmir, combining CCTV, biometric databases, and mobile monitoring. The speakers drew attention to the use of sophisticated spyware such as Pegasus and the risk that remote biometric identification is being used to facilitate arbitrary detentions and tracking, further marginalizing a population already burdened by decades of conflict.
The seminar concluded with a comprehensive set of demands directed at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Human Rights Council, and member states:
1. To the OHCHR: Commission a dedicated thematic report on AI and surveillance in highly securitized environments, specifically documenting harms in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
2. To the Human Rights Council: Adopt a resolution calling for an immediate moratorium on the export of intrusive AI surveillance technologies to states with documented records of human rights abuses.
3. To Member States: Enact mandatory human rights impact assessments for high-risk AI systems and prohibit remote biometric identification in public spaces.
4. To Tech Companies: Implement mandatory due diligence consistent with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and refuse contracts that facilitate rights abuses.
“The international community has both the legal mandate and the moral duty to act,” the organizers stated. We must not allow the architecture of surveillance and automated control to become the permanent inheritance of people already struggling for their basic civil and political rights.”
