Ukrainian human rights lawyer: Technology must defend humans

By Isabella H. de Carvalho

As wars and conflicts continue to ravage states across the world, Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Center for Civil Liberties – an organization that promotes human rights and democracy in Ukraine and that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 – emphasizes the need to reform intergovernmental organizations and to place human beings before technological progress.

“We are living in a very turbulent time where the world order based on the United Nations charter and international law has collapsed,” she underlined.

“One of the main questions of the current world is the following”, she asked: “How will we, people who live in the 21st century, defend human beings, their lives, their freedom and their human dignity? Can we rely on the law or does just brutal force matter?”

“We have to evaluate the role of technologies in regards to how they answer these questions.”

Matviichuk, a lawyer and human rights defender, spoke to Vatican News on the sidelines of the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly on Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear War, which took place at the Borgo Laudato Si’ (“Laudato Si’ Village”) in the papal gardens in Castel Gandolfo, about an hour away from Rome.

The event lasted from July 14 to July 16 and brought together over 200 Nobel Prize winners, experts, academics who gathered for discussion sessions and then signed the “Rome Declaration for an Unarmed and Disarming Peace” at the Capitoline Hill in Rome. 

Matviichuk spoke during a session focusing on the topic “Technology in the Service of Humanity” and the use of AI in Nuclear weapons systems. The Center for Civil Liberties in fact works on establishing human rights, democracy and solidarity in Ukraine and the OCSE region and has also focused on documenting war crimes since the beginning of Russia’s full‑scale invasion in February 2022.

We need to talk more about humanity and reform the UN

For Matviichuk, in order to slow down how AI is being used in conflicts and the arms race that is currently affecting our world we must first rethink what it means to be human. “We spoke too much about technologies and too little about humanity,” she underlined.

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In this regard she also defines as a “very important document” Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, on safeguarding the human person in the time of artificial intelligence. “I’m very glad that it appeared in this time when we have no legal answers, no ethical answers but humankind needs clarity,” she said. “I’m very grateful that His Holiness is keeping his attention on the role of AI and new technologies today and in the future.”

The second step for Matviichuk in order to change how AI is being used in conflicts is to regulate technology before it’s too late. “Sometimes I have the impression that we are losing this battle without having entered it,” Matviichuk noted.

She also emphasized that “a cardinal reform of the UN system” is necessary to promote peace across the world.

“We can’t protect people from mass violence, authoritarianism and wars. It’s visible not just for people in Ukraine, in Sudan, in Myanmar, in Nicaragua, Venezuela or Gaza. It’s become visible to all people regardless where they live,” she said.

Matviichuk said she was glad for the opportunity to gather with experts and intellectuals from different fields and countries to discuss these “urgent issues that will define our common future.” She said she had “moderate expectations” for the impact of the conference and the Rome Declaration they signed, noting that “everything will depend on the follow-up.”