SC Input to the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development, November 2025
Input to the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development
Study on Artificial Intelligence, Cultural Rights, and the Right to Development
South Centre
November 2025
The South Centre submitted an input to the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development regarding the study on “Artificial Intelligence, Cultural Rights, and the Right to Development.”
As Artificial Intelligence (AI) rapidly evolves, it presents a complex challenge for the international community. While AI holds the potential to advance human progress, unregulated deployment threatens to exacerbate existing global disparities and endanger the realisation of the Right to Development (RtD).
Key Policy Highlights from the Submission:
- Addressing the AI Divide: Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) face significant gaps in digital infrastructure and access to quality local datasets. To prevent the widening of global inequalities, governance frameworks must mandate technology transfer and capacity building without imposing restrictive intellectual property barriers.
- Protecting Cultural Sovereignty: The mass accumulation of data by Generative AI models risks replicating historical patterns of “digital extractivism”. There is a need to increase transparency in training data protocols to prevent the misappropriation of traditional knowledge and cultural heritage.
- Beyond Self-Regulation: Voluntary measures by the private sector lack essential mechanisms for external accountability and redress. A pragmatic regulatory approach is necessary: a legally binding global baseline for human rights accountability, complemented by flexible domestic regulations that preserve national policy space for local innovation.
To ensure AI serves humanity, the international community must move toward a governance model that guarantees global fairness, upholds human rights, and prevents market monopolisation by a few corporations.