Comment by Mher Hakobyan

There is a risk the European Parliament may upend considerable human rights protections reached during the committee vote on May 11, opening the door for the use of technologies which are in direct conflict with international human rights law. [...] Lawmakers must ban racist profiling and risk assessment systems, which label migrants and asylum seekers as ‘threats’; and forecasting technologies to predict border movements and deny people the right to asylum. [...] The European Parliament has a duty to uphold human rights. Anything short of an outright ban on technologies used for mass surveillance, racist policing and profiling would be a failure of that duty. EU lawmakers must also ensure that technologies banned within the EU are not exported to commit human rights abuses elsewhere. This legislation must protect and promote the human rights of all people, not just people in Europe.