ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN AFRICA: RETHINKING PROTECTION UNDER THE AFRICAN CHARTER SYSTEM

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly shaping governance, security, and socio-economic life across Africa, from biometric systems and financial technologies to predictive policing, border control and public service delivery. While AI is often framed as a tool of efficiency and development, its deployment in contexts of weak institutions raises significant human rights concerns, including mass surveillance, exclusion of marginalised populations and violations of privacy, dignity, equality, fair hearing and freedom of expression. This article examines whether the African human rights system, anchored in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, can protect individuals and communities against AI-related rights violations. Using a doctrinal and comparative methodology, it analyses Charter provisions, regional jurisprudence, and soft law while situating Africa’s regulatory challenges within global debates on algorithmic governance, private power, and digital colonialism. The article argues that the Charter’s people-centred and communitarian conception of rights provides a viable foundation for rights-based AI governance but is constrained by weak enforcement, fragmented digital regulation, and private technology influence. It calls for progressive Charter interpretation, an African Union-led AI and human rights framework, strengthened oversight and data protection, and enhanced collaboration between states, human rights institutions and civil society. Such measures can enable Africa to harness AI for development while resisting digital authoritarianism and external control.