Call for Papers
Gonzaga in Florence 2025 Human Rights Conference Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights: Future of Humanity in the 21st Century
May 23, 2025
Florence, Italy
Gonzaga University School of Law invites proposals for paper presentations at its 2025 Human Rights Conference in Florence, Italy. The 2025 conference will be the eighth edition of this annual conference that the Law School co-hosts with Gonzaga in Florence and the Center for Civil and Human Rights at Gonzaga Law. Previous conferences have addressed topics such as Cultural Heritage as Human Right, Artificial Intelligence. Government, Corporation, and Human Rights, Black Lives Matter as a Global Human Rights Movement, Equal Justice as a Human Right, Freedom of Expression as a Human Right, and Women’s Rights as Human Rights. These programs have showcased distinguished academics and lawyers from a dozen countries and five continents. Keynote speakers have included Professor Paul Butler; Dr. Teresa Sullivan, President Emerita of the University of Virginia; the Honorable Raul Pangalangan, Judge of the International Criminal Court and former Dean of the University of Philippines College of Law; the Honorable Mary Murguia, Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; Professor Frank Pasquale, Jeffrey D. Forchelli Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School; and award-winning cultural heritage lawyers and founding partners of Cultural Heritage Partners, PLLC, Marion Werkheiser and Greg Werkheiser.
The 2025 conference is scheduled for May 23, 2025, and the theme is Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights: Future of Humanity in the 21st Century. The conference will begin with an evening keynote reception in central Florence on May 22, followed by a full-day program that will include multiple panels, a keynote luncheon, and a closing dinner. Keynote speakers will be announced as they are confirmed. Gonzaga Law in Florence will waive speaker conference fees, including for program events and meals. Depending on available resources, Gonzaga also may be able to provide lodging in Florence for the dates of the conference and limited travel reimbursement.
This conference will explore the many ways in which AI is negatively impacting and positively influencing the fulfillment of the entire spectrum of human rights and will highlight the ways in which different regulatory bodies are and should be seeking to impose safeguards or limits on the development and implementation of AI, and how technology companies are already being held accountable for the irresponsible deployment of AI.
AI has the potential to transform life as we know it, and yet is being advanced at almost incomprehensible speeds and used by corporations and governments who brazenly disregard its potential impact, flout attempts at sufficient regulation, and show no signs of meaningfully guarding or guiding its impact. Harms are not just theoretical. AI has already been used in facilitating mass surveillance as well as perpetuating bias in the criminal justice system, healthcare, education, job markets, access to housing, and access to banking, thereby exacerbating discrimination against already marginalized groups and doing so in ways that can be all but imperceptible to the average person. Like all tools, AI also has the potential to benefit human rights, from facilitating advances in healthcare to tracking supply chain compliance. But because human rights are indivisible and interdependent, AI can reasonably be framed as poised to affect nearly every recognized human right, including the rights to freedom of expression, thought, assembly, association, and movement; the right to privacy and data protection; the rights to health, education, work, and an adequate standard of living; and non-discrimination and equality. And that’s just the list at the time of writing.
The UN, through its B-Tech initiative, has created a framework by which technology companies can fold considerations of human rights into the work that they do. Mandated by a Global Call Against Racism issued by UNESCO’s Executive Board in 2020, UNESCO developed a Roadmap against Racism and Discrimination. In parallel, UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, a pillar of the roadmap, was adopted in 2021 by 193 countries. These are just a few examples of legal development toward AI regulations.
We anticipate a plenary panel to open the conference focusing specifically on the impact of AI on human rights. We also welcome paper proposals that explore other legal and interdisciplinary topics relating to AI and human rights. We will organize selected papers into several concurrent panels.
Paper proposals are invited on any topic that explores AI and human rights issues.
To submit a proposal, please email a paper abstract (one to two pages) and CV to the Director of Global Legal Education, Dr. Upendra Acharya, at acharya@nullgonzaga.edu.
The conference is co-sponsored by Gonzaga-In-Florence, the Center for Civil and Human Rights at Gonzaga University School of Law, and the Asian Society of International Law Special Human Rights Interest Group (Singapore).
The deadline for priority consideration of proposals is February 15, 2025.
A few selected papers with full manuscripts will be published in the Gonzaga Journal of International Law.
Dr. Upendra D. Acharya
Professor of Law
Distinguished Scholar of International Law
Director, Global Legal Education Program
Gonzaga University School of Law
Email: acharya@nullgonzaga.edu
Tel: +1 509-313-3719