Event | Data Privacy Brasil Participates in the First United Nations Global Dialogue on AI Governance |

Data Privacy Brasil Participates in the First United Nations Global Dialogue on AI Governance

On 6-7 July 2026, the first United Nations Global Dialogue on AI Governance (UNGD) will take place in Geneva, Switzerland. Data Privacy Brasil will participate alongside partners from the Global South and Global North, as well as representatives from civil society, governments, and international organizations. Together with the Global South Alliance, we have established a set of shared priorities, which can be read here. At the institutional level, we will focus on three key priorities to bring to the Dialogue.

Our first priority concerns sustainability. The rapid expansion of AI infrastructure has made it increasingly urgent to recognize and address the socio-environmental impacts associated with these technologies. These include the intensive extraction and use of resources such as water, energy, and critical minerals, as well as increased noise and air pollution and growing volumes of electronic waste. As highlighted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), one of the main challenges in this field is assessing the life-cycle impacts of AI, including both software and hardware, as well as its direct and indirect effects. This challenge is closely linked to persistent transparency gaps within the industry.

In this context, we have advocated for the collective right of access to information as a fundamental pillar for advancing socio-environmental and technological justice. This position is grounded in the recognition that access to information is a prerequisite for the realization of other fundamental rights, drawing inspiration from Brazilian legal frameworks such as the Federal Constitution, the Access to Information Law (LAI), and the General Data Protection Law (LGPD), as well as the Escazú Agreement at the international level. In the field of AI, this requires both proactive and reactive transparency mechanisms applicable to public and private actors, ensuring the disclosure of information on the socio-environmental impacts of AI technologies. This includes policies prioritizing accessible indicators on water and energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, waste management, power purchase agreements, and other relevant aspects.

Our second priority is to align data governance and human rights narratives. Privacy and personal data protection are foundational to any governance framework in which data are used for artificial intelligence systems, given the risks involved in such processing activities. Alongside the UNGD, the UN Global Digital Compact has also created another important institutional space: the Working Group on Data Governance under the Commission on Science and Technology for Development.

It is therefore essential that these forums are coordinated and that multistakeholder efforts adopt a data justice approach, moving beyond purely technical understandings of data governance to incorporate its social and economic dimensions. A key principle is that data governance should be grounded in international human rights standards (including freedom, privacy, and human dignity). From this foundation, countries should retain the autonomy to develop governance approaches that reflect their own contexts while ensuring broad multistakeholder participation. In practice, this means establishing formal participation mechanisms alongside robust transparency and accountability measures. Meaningful public participation in data governance enables data to be used more effectively for public policy and sustainable development while promoting inclusion and reducing power asymmetries.

Our third priority starts from the recognition that the harms caused by artificial intelligence systems are neither abstract nor merely future risks, they are already occurring and affecting individuals, communities, institutions, and democratic processes in different ways. In this context, we recently launched the AI Harms Library, an initiative of the AI with Rights project. The Library gathers, systematizes, and makes accessible concrete evidence of the negative impacts caused by AI systems in Brazil, with the goal of strengthening public debate and supporting more informed regulatory discussions.

The cases documented demonstrate that AI harms cut across multiple dimensions of social life, including democratic harms, psychological and social harms, socio-environmental and economic harms, and violations of fundamental rights. It is essential to recognize that these harms are not distributed equally, as AI systems operate within deeply asymmetric power structures. For this reason, we advocate for the UNGD to incorporate an understanding of the harms already produced by AI systems as a starting point for developing effective regulatory responses.

Data Privacy Brasil will continue to closely follow developments within the United Nations system and other international forums dedicated to AI governance.