Human Rights and Artificial Intelligence in Ethiopia
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Date
2025-08-01
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Artificial Intelligence is a new paradigm of technological system that is impacting human rights
in many respects. Despite its new opportunities in assisting the protection of human rights, it
also challenges human rights which potentially range from compromising human dignity to
rendering individuals jobless to depriving their freedom of speech. It disrupts the mainstream
view conceived of human rights that human rights is exclusively owned by natural born human
beings. It may also shift the nature of responsibility that is usually centered on human beings and
targeted against states than to corporates or other entities. As a result it necessitates the
reconsideration of human rights so as to ensure individuals‟ rights in order to make it withstand
the inundation of AI. The need to revisit human rights is not limited to international level, but
also induces us to observe the place of national legislations in regulating AI activities.
Framing human rights as the commendable framework for Artificial Intelligence regulation, the
thesis addresses Ethiopian AI governance landscapes within the prism of human rights law. To
do so, the paper discusses Ethiopian policies, strategy and legislatives that have incorporated
the works of digital and emerging technology tools in one way or another. Having done that, the
paper underpins the existence of huge gaps on frameworks incorporating human rights with
regard to AI regulation. The paper also scrutinizes the potential impacts of specific human rights
as a result of employing AI. The central objective of this paper therefore is to posit the place of
Ethiopian laws regarding the protection of human rights from undue and malicious outcomes of
AI driven activities. To that end, the researcher has consulted two Institutes principally working
on AI in Ethiopia which are Ethiopian Artificial Intelligence Institute (EAII) and Ethiopian Bio
and Emerging Technology Institute (BETin). While the efforts done so far by these institutes are
appreciable, the responses acquired from them attest the low level of Ethiopian governance
frameworks on AI. The finding of the study is that Ethiopia is yet to adopt comprehensive and
robust frameworks on the regulation of AI. The interplay of various factors hindered the timely
formulation of these laws which specifically address the impact of emerging technologies on
human rights. The typical factors such as capacity constraints, lack of collaboration with other
sectors, the prioritization of innovation over regulation, the overlapping of mandates and the
patience to run after global paces have considerably retarded the Institutes to proactively adopt
AI regulations. On the other hand, while Ethiopian AI governance system is almost nonexistent,
AI violation of human rights is already started to manifest in Ethiopia.
Therefore, Ethiopia needs to adopt new legislations and revise its existing laws embracing
international and other jurisdictions‟ experiences on the regulation of AI
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Despite its new opportunities in assisting the protection of human rights